One of the first questions that usually comes up when people ask me about my book The Republican Brain is: “How do you explain my Uncle Elmer, who grew up a hard core Democrat and was very active in the union, but now has a bumper sticker that reads ‘Don’t Tread on Me’?”

Okay: I’m making this question up, but it’s pretty close to reality. People constantly want to know how to explain political conversions—cases in which individuals have changed political outlooks, sometimes very dramatically, from left to right or right to left.
When I get the standard political conversion question, the one I ask in return may come as a surprise: “Are you talking about permanent political conversions, or temporary ones?”

You see, Uncle Elmer is less interesting to me—and in some ways, less interesting to the emerging science of political ideology—than the committed Democrat who became strongly supportive of George W. Bush right after 9/11, but switched back to hating him a few months later. What caused that to happen? Because it certainly doesn’t seem to have much to do with thinking carefully about the issues.

Indeed, the growing science of politics has uncovered a variety of interventions that can shift liberal people temporarily to the political right. And notably, none of them seem to have anything substantive to do with policy, or with the widely understood political differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Here is a list of five things that can make a liberal change his or her stripes:

Distraction. Several studies have shown that “cognitive load”—in other words, requiring people to do something that consumes most or all of their attention, like listening to a piece of music and noting how many tones come before each change in pitch—produces a conservative political shift.

In one study, for instance, liberal and conservative subjects were asked whether government health care should be extended to a hypothetical group of AIDS victims who were responsible for their own fates (they’d contracted the disease while knowing the risks, and having unprotected sex anyway). Liberals who were not under load—not distracted—wanted to help such people, despite the fact that they were personally responsible for their plight. But liberals under load were much more like conservatives, appearing to reason that this group of AIDS victims had gotten what they deserved. (Cognitive load did not appear to change the view of conservatives in the study.)

Drunkenness. Alcohol intoxication is not unlike cognitive load, in that it cuts down the capacity for in-depth, nuanced thinking, and privileges economical, quick responses. Sure enough, in a recent study of 85 bar patrons, blood alcohol content was related to increased political conservatism for liberals and conservatives alike.

The drinkers still knew whether they were liberal or conservative, of course. But when asked how much they agreed with a variety of statements of political principles—like, “Production and trade should be free of government interference”—higher blood alcohol content was associated with giving more conservative answers.

Time Pressure. In another study reported in the same paper, participants were asked how much they endorsed a variety of politically tinged words, like “authority” and “civil rights.” In one study condition, they had to see the term and respond to it in about 1.5 seconds; in the other condition, they had 4 seconds to do so. This made a political difference: Subjects under time pressure were more likely to endorse conservative terms.

Cleanliness/Purity. In another fascinating study, subjects who were asked political questions near a hand sanitizer, or asked to use a hand wipe before responding, also showed a rightward shift. In this case, political conservatism was being tied not to distraction, but rather, to disgust sensitivity—an emotional response to preserve bodily purity.

Fear. After 9/11, public support for President George W. Bush also immediately swelled. In fact, a study showed that Bush’s approval ratings increased whenever terror alert levels were issued by the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of “liberal hawks” who wanted to attack Iraq was much remarked upon. Why is that?

The answer seems to involve the amygdala, a region of the emotional brain that conditions our life-preserving responses to danger. Its activity seems to have political implications: When we’re deeply afraid, tough and decisive leaders are more appealing to us. So are militaristic and absolute responses, like going to war and the death penalty; things like civil liberties, meanwhile, matter less to us.

It is unlikely that all of the phenomena discussed above involve the same cognitive mechanism. For instance, disgust sensitivity is probably operating through a different part of the brain than fear sensitivity. Still, priming people to feel either fear or disgust (or the need for cleanliness) seems to favor political conservatism, and politically conservative candidates.

What all of this suggests is a pretty stunning conclusion: Maybe we’ve been thinking about political ideology in very much the wrong way. It seems to be at least partly rooted in things deeper and more primal than the policy issues of the day, and how we individually reason that we ought to handle them.

Moreover, it is striking that the research literature does not, at least at present, contain such a plethora of ways to bring about a temporary liberal shift—to make conservatives move left. Instead, what these cases seem to reveal are some inherent conservative political advantages, especially at times of deep fear, uncertainty, and stress. (And we’ve seen some of those recently.)

Aristotle famously wrote that “man is by nature a political animal.” Perhaps it’s about time that we pay more attention to what the word “nature” here really means.

I still think that much of your research ignores the effect of age on an individual’s political outlook.

Or as one person once remarked, if a man is not a socialist when he’s twenty, he has no heart; if he is still a socialist when he is forty, he has no brain.

(That’s not an exact quote; and apparently women’s political outlooks were of no interest to this person. I’ve seen in attributed to Winston Churchill and also former French Prime Minister Aristide Briande.)

The reason I think this is important is that, demographically, USA and Canada (I’m Canadian) are aging. The baby boomers as a cohort are now in their 50s, 60s and 70s – and I think that the collective aging of our populations is producing a rightward shift in our politics that is as temporary in nature as the leftward shift of the 60s and 70s, when these people first became old enough to vote.

The pendulum will start to swing back as this population dies out, and the echo of the baby boom (the boomers’ children, born in the 80s and 90s) become the largest cohort in the voting population.

Schitzengigles

I like it… To create a conservative from a liberal you must first addle the brain!

AG

“The Republican War on Science. ”

“The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality ”

Above link provide additional evidence of conservatives denial of reality. But liberals can do the same.

AG

Also conservative reaction is more related to our instinct since all those 5 ways seems reducing frontal cortex thinking and promote `gut’ like reaction. Liberal thinks need to go beyound the selfish instinct.

badnicolez

As a former liberal (more than twenty years ago when I was young and naive and didn’t know anything about anything, but thought I knew everything), having completed my political transformation from liberalism to conservatism to libertarianism now that I have become informed about how the real world (not the fantasyland facism of bleeding heart liberalism) works, I think this article is the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever read and really hope that none of my tax dollars were wasted on any of these ridiculous “studies” masquerading as science. Discover has officially reached a new low.

M. A. Fink

I’ve quipped for years that Conservatism is based on fear while Liberalism is based on guilt.

Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

We generally consign comments like @badnicolez to the eternal damnation that is our comment-trash bin, but I’m letting this through as an opportunity to warn people not to do what she did on this thread. We’re fine with disagreement, but you need to put in some more thought, explanation, and/or proof than this comment.

@badnicolez, you’re welcome to come back and explain yourself with reason instead of vitriol; the evidence that Chris cites is far more convincing than the mindless flame you left.

Cbill

So Amos, you put this last comment in to say “we usually only allow comments that have data and facts to support ones view but we put this in to show how not to write a comment and hey everyone look at that hateful conservative!” (which I am sure is redundant to you and your ilk.) The title of the article and comments 2, 3, and 4 especially 2 are hateful and unsupportable and almost silly comments. Where are your snide comments about them. Hypocritical much?

JDoors

I’d like to see a study of why liberals are so incredibly blind to liberal bias. I’m not even going to address the obvious bias of the article as, apparently, liberals can’t see it anyway. However:

One comment to this post says, “To create a conservative from a liberal you must first addle the brain!” No Editor comment, no warning, no suggestion to “… put in some more thought, explanation and/or proof …” No calling it vitriole, no comparing the published article’s content to “… the mindless flame you left.”

Even that clear and obviously biased response to one but not the other comment won’t, can’t, I guess, be seen as bias. One was a short, sharp, mean attack on the intelligence of conservatives, the other a longer, cliche-ridden, dismissal of liberalism as “ridiculous.”

Somebody should study the heck out of that disparity.

AZ: OK, fair enough. No more brain-addling jokes, either. Let’s keep the discussion to the science of liberal and conservative thinking, not the political worthiness of either side.

GS

“…subjects who were asked political questions near a hand sanitizer, or asked to use a hand wipe before responding, also showed a rightward shift.” – I have a different theory for this one. Many hand sanitizers contain some very toxic chemicals that can, in fact, affect the brain, at least temporarily. More sensitive people can experience effects such as short term memory loss, confusion, and mood changes from relatively minor toxic exposures. It would be interesting to repeat this part of the study and measure for some of these other possible effects as well to determine whether or not the chemical itself might be the cause of the tempoary shift in ideology. Hmm, could there be a connection between our increasingly polluted environment and more toxic consumer products (anti-bacterial, stain-resistant, UV-protected, …you name it) and an increasingly conservative (and irrational) political climate? Food for thought, and further research.

AnneV

Contrary to what JMW is postulating, my mother and I are at opposite ends of the baby-boomer generation and we are both skewing more liberal over time, not less. Most of our friends seem to be doing the same, responding to threats to defund PP, education, and food stamps, among other concerns.

BP

I have to say, that makes a lot of sense to me. It seems to me that a lot of the problem is the mixing up of different issues all bundles up under “conservatism”. For instance, a lot of people who are deeply religious will be lumped into the conservative camp, but so will those that are hyper-capatilists. Conversely, those that are Liberal have the primary goal of allowing people to choose their own path, while protecting everyone else’s right to do so. (in canada we have left, centre and right which would equate to conservative, liberal, socialist) and we ten to lean more to the social side of things (present government excepted).

@JMW – I don’t think he neglected any data on purpose because I don’t think he was trying to be thorough. he did draw conclusions on incomplete data, however, based on the data provided, he dew a reasonable conclusion.

@badnicolez – I get what your saying, I’ve considered libertarianism as an alternative myself, but once I really got into the thought experiment and did a *lot* of reading, I realized that libertarianism is the system that seems to be a good one, but like communism, breaks down when human nature is applied; particularly when you consider the population densities that currently reside on the earth.
As for “ridiculous “studies” masquerading as science”, well that is testable. however you don’t seem to have done any checking into their methodology so I can’t take what your saying at face value.

Matt

So are there circumstances that cause conservatives to make liberal statements?

RM

But what about Uncle Elmer? Why bring up long-term changes and then change the subject. Long-term ideological changes surely have more of an impact than short term ones. Why, then, are they less interesting?

floodmouse

It would be interesting to measure the impact of these 5 techniques on religious views, as well as politics. Does the type of pressure involved in these experiments (distraction, drunkenness, time pressure, cleanliness/purity, fear) also cause people to have a knee-jerk positive reaction to religious sentiments and/or religious fundamentalism? Someone once said, “there are no atheists in a foxhole.” (Translation: If bullets are whizzing past your head, you’re likely to find yourself praying whether you’ve ever set foot in a church voluntarily.)

http://gschneyer.wordpress.com/ G. Schneyer

Interesting, another “if you’re a Conservative you must be stupid but if you’re Liberal you’re very, very smart” article. During my 20’s I was a Democrat, only because I was ignorant of what the parties stood for. I didn’t pay attention to politics in general, yet still voted down the D column because I was told that was what a good Democrat did. When I started to pay attention, and thus became educated on what was happening, I could not logically hold together the beliefs that those on the Left kept maintaining. They were contradictory, illogical, inflammatory, accusatory, and generally off-ball nuts. I knew I could not be part of that “enlightened” bunch. I started looking at ALL the arguments, from both sides, and found that those that were giving cogent, reasoned, factual-based opinions were on the Right. So no I do not consider those on the Left as “enlightened, reasonable, erudite, cultured, or interesting”. I see them as frat boys that throw a flaming bag of dog doo on the porch and congratulating themselves on how clever they are at thinking up something new and executing it flawlessly. Liberalism is the philosophy the child, based exclusively on emotion with logic used to justify it, “I want therefore I get it”. Conservativism is the philosophy of the adult, based on logic and reason to guide the emotion, “No you can’t have dessert until you eat your broccoli”. So thank you for once again showing your “intelligence”.

austinkenner

Maybe, just maybe we are supposed to be selfish by nature. Badnicolezs’ statement is somewhat vitroilic, however I somewhat agree with him/her. By nature we are supposed to take care of ourselves and our family first. It seems that the right-leaning responses arise from our instinctual tendencies to be selfish. Our instincts define who we are and ultimately how we think, so it would appear that everyone, at their core, is a conservative. The left media simply overloads the public with “facts” and “news” that fits their narrative. I personally cannot speak for the entire republican party but can i can speak for some of its principles; not the social nonsensical principles but rather the ideologies that actually matter like government and the economy. I read into Chris Mooney’s book “The Republican Brain: Blah Blah Blah”, and it from what I saw, this book seems to hinge on a single case against a conservative website. Again I cannot speak for the entire republican party as there are a fair amount of nutcases that support republican philosophy just as there are on the left. I guess my main point is to not disregard anything that disagrees with your own beliefs and to have a more open, objective outlook on politics, look into people like Bill Whittle or my favorite objectivist, Ayn Rand (especially “The Virtue of Selfishness”); people who back their beliefs with hard evidence and facts.

Kevin

Actually, @badnicolez’s comment provides further evidence for a main claim of the article: that a lack of thinking leads to conservative viewpoints.

stargene

When people, liberal and conservative, feel time pressure, high stakes pressure,
or the pressure of understanding very complex (or seemingly complex) issues
that will apparently affect them, there is a significant increase in short-cut style
thinking. Ie: when people feel like cornered, like their backs are against the wall,
responses tend to be coarser and stupider.

The well known Shock Agenda strategy comes to mind… if you can keep most people
frightened and shocky in such a manner as to decrease their normal trust in normal
channels of discourse, analysis and decision-making, you can get them to sign off on
and accept much more brazenly antisocial, industrial and political programs, including
military agendas, than you could at time when people have the time and peace of mind
and necessary independence of thought to wisely judge issues. The Shock Agenda is
the exact antithesis of those conditions which sustain and feed the Wisdom of Crowds
phenomena studied by James Surowiecki… a significantly more democratic, scientific
and egalitarian mode of processing and evaluating issues.

His stated conditions are…

Diversity of opinion — Each person should have private information even if it’s just
an eccentric interpretation of the known facts.
Independence — People’s opinions aren’t determined by the opinions of those
around them.
Decentralization — People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge.
Aggregation — Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a
collective decision.

Absence of any of these is tantamount to guaranteeing a poor decision, whether
liberal, conservative, libertarian or any other persuasion.

Mike

I can see where badnicolez is coming from, but agree that it wasn’t a reasoned response. Let’s start out with the obvious bias of the writer/”scientist”: He has written books against Republicans, so has a vested interest in finding scientific evidence for his claims. Because of this, his opinion and evidence should be heavily scrutinized. While this blog article would be fitting on a political website (an obviously left-leaning one), this has no place on a scientific site. There are far too many subjective items and terms involved here.

Believe it or not, many people actually think about and debate their political beliefs, and hold these beliefs whether drunk, dirty, scared or under pressure. This article gives the impression that conservatives would be liberal if they weren’t so primitive-thinking.

(Note: I am conservative/libertarian, but wish the Republicans would get with the times in regards to social issues like gay rights and abortion, and especially separating church from the state. The real travesty in today’s politics is that real debate doesn’t even occur. We’re stuck arguing about identity politics in popularity contests. i.e. liberals raise taxes, conservatives lower them; but why do we not debate what the optimum rates should be?)

kyle j

Re @Amos Zeeberg. I find it disturbing that Discover edits their web commentary on articles for one. Second its very easy to cite things and support whatever point you want to make. Haven’t you ever taken a statistics course? How about an English course? That’s kind of how you become a writer isn’t it? Have you ever noticed the crazy things on History Channel or what have you claiming doomsdays and alien visitations all backed with citations! This is a comment section on what is clearly a pointed opinion piece. Do you only encourage liberals to read and comment on your articles? Or do you only care to read the opinions of liberals? Frankly I’m very disappointed in Discover for this article and for your comment: as an independant avid reader of Discover

scribbler

I’m sorry, but I seriously and without the first thought of insult thought this piece was a spoof/tongue in cheek farce. So, and again, I’m not kidding, you are presenting this as legitimate science? The conclusion is: “Addle the brain/reduce the ability to reason and you get a conservative.” is it not???

Davd

Great article; makes me want to go out and buy Chris Mooney’s books. If nothing else, I think the studies show that we need to keep ourselves as educated and informed as possible throughout our lives, as well as training ourselves to not getting distracted. They also point to something else we’ve known for quite a while, the sometimes detrimental effects of alcohol.

As far as badnicolez comment: I’ve heard her argument, that “her” tax dollars shouldn’t be wasted on certain studies/projects, way too many times; and > 90% of those times it’s from conservatives. It would be nice if we could all specify what our tax dollars should/should not go to; I certainly have a list of things for which my taxes should or shouldn’t go towards. Unfortunately that’s not the way our tax system works.

Aidan

scribbler: I’m gonna go on a limb and assume you’re conservative. I don’t think it’s saying that stupidity is associated with conservatism, merely that conservatism is based more in faith and emotional responses than science. Why do you think so many conservatives are religious?

Frank Dziedziak

This article for me, rang so very true, especially the point made about liberals becoming ‘hawkish’ when threatened . I remember my liberal friends at a bar after 9-11, they wanted to kick butt and didn’t care about the loss of personal freedoms ‘homeland security brought and the weapons of mass destruction.. farce.I find it hard to understand how the religious or tea party right can have so much faith in unproven ideals yet live happily in a relatively safe country with products and medicines provided by proven scientific research..

Todd

I don’t have a problem with gay marriage, legalized drugs and prostitution, and some sort of social safety net, but my positions on anthropogenic global warming, limited government intervention in the free market, and the importance of sound fiscal policy automatically lump me in with every red state creationist according to many.

When I point out that many government programs haven’t met stated goals since their inception, and ask why we should keep shoveling money into them, I’m told my thinking isn’t nuanced enough, and I need to shut up and listen to “the experts”, who are the very officials kept fed and clothed by continued funding.

When I question how making healthcare a commodity will lower overall costs (as advertised), I’m told to shut up and listen to the experts (again, the very people who will be enriched by government healthcare). When I point out that healthcare is one of the leading costs in the U.S. military, because it is “free” and commoditized, I’m again told what a simple thinker I am.

When I question how we can justify paying teachers higher pay when we have no mechanism to grade teacher performance and rid ourselves of non performers, I’m told I’m cruel and heartless. Never mind the fact that I believe higher teacher pay is necessary and right. I simply recognize that paying teachers more without competition will not produce better teacher performance, unless poor performers are pushed out to make room for others.

Now I find an article on a website I THOUGHT was dedicated to science. Yet no portion of the article was set aside to summarize how the data was gathered, or examine weaknesses in the argument the researchers made. Nor have any of the posters inquired about the testing methodology. But I have a feeling it will be determined that I’m the simple minded one for not simply accepting the information presented without question.

scribbler

Aidan: Wrong. Now what?

scribbler

To expound, I consider myself a student of the scientific process. I examine the facts and come to reasoned conclusions. I have found over the years that humans tend toward arrogance and ignorant prejudice. Being a “scientist” doesn’t convey immunity…

scribbler

Frank, your assertion is predicated upon the premise that one cannot simultaneously hold in ones mind nonsensical trash and keen insight as truth. Experience teaches otherwise…

The Center for American Progress is a Progressive, Liberal “Thinktank”. The author works for Science Progress which is part of The Center for American Progress. The Author is PAID to promote Progressive agendas. There is a sinister motive here.

There is a tendancy for some people to want to label others with negative traits. It’s the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ mentality. Some separate people by race, or religion, or ideology. Progressives see Conservatives as the enemy. He claims Conservatives deny Science and Reality. When you deny reality, you are out of touch with reality. There is a medical term for people who deny reality. It’s called psychosis. Ultimately, He is attempting to convince others that Conservatism is a Mental Illness, or at the least a disability. Eventually, “They can’t help it.” is what he’ll say. “They’re sick, disabled. We need to help them. To correct thier thinking.” In many revolutions the “enemy” is said to have something wrong with them. During slavery it was said that Blacks cannot take care of themselves. There not intelligent enough.” It was total rubbish. It was said during WWII in Germany that the Jewish people were mentally deficient. More rubbish. Conservatives have difficulty with Science. It’s too ‘Intellectual’. They’re ‘stupid’. People are actually debating the content of his ‘experiments’. The content is total crap. If you believe his ‘experiments’ and results are valid, your ultimate conclusion would be that Conservatives are mentally inferior. He is no different than those ‘scientists’ who ‘proved’ blacks and the Jewish people were inferior. Many ‘scientists’ knew homosexuality was a mental illness. They knew very little. Being a scientist does not give you an advantage in finding the truth. It just helps you get published.

That is his agenda.

Bill

I am surprised and disappointed to see Discover publishing political propaganda like this, even if it does attempt to be humorous. It really detracts,,,significantly… from what normally is a good objective source of information.

al

Is this a joke? So what you are saying is that conservatives are unable to think logically, are irrational, and hold their beliefs based on external influences…wow.

mike

Being a 69 year old male and having grown up in conservative west Texas bible belt, then lived in Liberal Austin, Texas, my view is that people lean what ever way protects their turf the best. Most liberals in my area are government workers, and therefore democrats. One acquaintenence I know grew up on a ranch, but spent his career working for the federal government. He admitted to being a democrat because he thought Republican administrations were less likely to give him a raise. People in business for themselves tend to be Republicans and anti-liberal, because they believe they ship too much money to the government. Workers in the private sector have been beat out their retirements in many situations, and they think Government workers now are the only ones with decent benefits. We protect our turf. Mike

dtl

It is interesting what kind of discussion has sprouted out of this article. It’s like football team fans having a heated exchange over a beer. Surely this is an interesting idea (I have no political leaning whatsoever, in fact don’t live in USA), worth a thought. Your own thought. Why the defensiveness?

Life is far more complicated than to fit one political system to us. That is where the intelligence should focus, not on what it’s called. And as long as there are intelligent people in any government (or used to be) it should work because they will be willing to step outside their doctrine now and then.

http://Discover JW

Wow, reading through some of the comments was an eye opening activity. Not much fact or substance but lots of opinion and frankly, vitriol. These comments again remind of Michael Schurmer’s “The Believing Brain” and are full of anecdotal evidence demonstrating not exactly proof of his assertions but very close… People, you are not as objective and clear thinking as you believe…

MLG

I think everyone got too wrapped up in the politics. My guess is you’re all under a severe “cognitive load” due to the current economy. I find myself becoming intolerant of intolerance. The right and the left both need a “time out”. When it’s over maybe we can all talk to each other like human beings again.

ThePowerOfNow

Replace the word ‘Conservative’ in this article with the word ‘Black’ or the word ‘Jew’. Now try and defend this article. It is bigoted, hateful, and offensive. I expect an apology from Discover. I am deeply OFFENDED.

Professor Barry

Outrageous article slamming a valid, rational political philosophy. Never thought I would see this in Discover . As a conservative college professor (I know – hard to believe I was even hired) I saw closed-minded liberalism ruin the campus ideal of free inquiry and the pursuit of truth. The studies quoted here have numerous failings and are, at best, simplly anecdotes aimed at pushing an agenda. When 90% of college faculty are liberal, it should be expected that such “research” would be extremely biased.

ThePowerOfNow

I saved this article. I am posting the link on many conservative websites. Discover magazine will be hearing more about this.

Kathy Wendorff

Propaganda? Dissing conservatives? To me, this article doesn’t actually say anything about the relative strength/correctness/worth of liberal vs. conservative views. The author says upfront that “none of (these changes) seem to have anything substantive to do with policy, or with the widely understood political differences between Democrats and Republicans.”

It does present a variety of evidence that when people are under various kinds of pressure, they tend to respond more conservatively and self-protectively. And that when those pressures ease, liberals go back to their liberal positions. And that there don’t seem to be a similar set of pressures or stimuli which shift conservatives in the opposite direction & back. (If there are, somebody post links!) None of this says anything about which world view is better. You could say people are more liberal when they have time to think. Or you could say when the chips are down, people realize that the conservative position is right.

At a time when we’re having a terrible time getting along with people who disagree with us, when we can’t even agree on basic facts, don’t you think it’s interesting and important to figure out factors which affect the way we process arguments and the way we hear each other?

John

http://www.MoralFoundations.org is a great site that doesn’t try to state who is right or wrong politically, but tries to explain how liberals and conservatives think. I believe that it has more validity than the above article although this article touches on a few interesting facts.

Monswine

I really did not expect to see such an outcry against this article. The whole range of different arguments against it: confirmation bias, slippery slope arguments, accusations of sinister motives, general anger… There are plenty of studies that suggest the brain struggles with simple things when it is distracted, like remembering numbers. And there are other studies that suggest when the brain is distracted it tends to churn out gut reactions rather than more thought-out reactions. At no point did I see claims that one ideology was better than the other. And the cases cited tendencies not 100% shifts. I thought the most interesting thing about this article (because I’ve heard about these studies before) is the question of “What kinds of things would make people tend towards liberalism?”

Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

I’m really glad to see these past few comments from people who are actually reading the post and responding to what it says rather than to what they’re imagining it says. Chris is discussing the brain and how it relates to political leanings, not the actual merits of those leanings.

So instead of just slamming Discover and saying you hate the piece, why don’t you instead show why the evidence and/or reasoning is wrong, rather than just what you perceive to be the implications?

Patrick Shea

The sort of studies (I resisted the urge to use scare quotes) cited here are plagued with problems, the first being adequate definitions of liberal and conservative, two particularly slippery words deeply dependent on context. I doubt researchers often knowingly indulge biases in their surveys, but if you look over the types of questions used, any conclusions drawn from them must quickly tend toward triviality or question-begging. Take, for example, the HIV scenario the author discusses: are there clear-cut “conservative” and “liberal” answers to that sort of policy question abstracted from a real political environment? After all, George W. Bush was a far more profoundly committed warrior against HIV than either Clinton or Obama. Moreover, this sort of highly artificial ranking of sentiments usually neglects any analysis of the reasoning (or lack thereof) that leads to the sentiments. At best they are guesswork based on the researcher’s intuitions (or some other researcher’s hunches, as the common dodge to this problem is to use an allegedly objective distinction between political values developed by a third party). I would go so far as to suggest that these sorts of studies are merely a pseudo-scientific veneer spread atop a rather poor quality of amateur philosophy, pop psychology and political posturing. Sadly, that describes much of the work currently being done in the field of cognitive science.

P.S. Mr. Zeeberg: The author’s post drips with condescension and is lacking even a skeptical nod to the many scholarly objections to studies of this type and their conclusions. It’s just a blog post, and I have a hard time believing anyone is surprised or all that worked up about it — but to pretend this was some sort of balanced, above the fray discussion of brain science is a bit much.

Professor Barry

Careful Zeeberg, your bias is showing. The statement: “Still, priming people to feel either fear or disgust (or the need for cleanliness) seems to favor political conservatism, and politically conservative candidates.” certainly implies that all rational thought has gone out the window and thus, conservatism is not rational. But let us back up here. In an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the validity of published psychological studies was questioned. (See: http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/is-psychology-about-to-come-undone/29045). Often, the studies are never replicated. Yet, they are published and writers, like Mooney, take them as gospel. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology agreed to publish a study by Daryl J. Bem that asserted that people can sense future events. The study could not be replicated, as shown by a University of Edinburgh grad student. Yet he could not get his study published. Blogger’s like Mooney jump on supposed “research” without checking for corroboration. I expect that is the case here.

Clarence

I’m almost 80 years old. It seams to me that its a matter of chance or the flip of a coin as to whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.
Its not a matter of logic . There are a few “the crossover vote” who may be logical about their vote.
The main undeniable facts I base this on is that about 50% of United States people are Republicans and 50% are Democrats.The toss of a coin is the same.
This tells me evolution has not led to much logic in humans. Emotions are way more important to our survival.

Kim

Concern for yourself is a primitive brain function, while concern for other people… the environment…and everything else is a higher brain function…

Our bodies are programmed to respond to emergencies…reflexively…we protect bodies form harm and then look around to see if we can help others…

We are all conservative first and then liberal in dealing with stress…the only people that are not… have under gone specialized training to by pass normal responses…some of these people include policemen, soldiers, pilots, FBI, CIA , firemen, and the list goes on and on….

Ed

I’m not sure why people are criticizing Discover for this article; after all, it is in the blog section. However, did any of the negative commenters here actually click through to the links the author includes in the article – to the studies he is using as the basis for his arguments? He isn’t making things up here. To say he is just another conservative basher or put the article down as pure trash (as some of the conservative readers appear to have done) seems pig-headed and wrong. Yes, he has a liberal bias, but that is clearly stated up front.

And @ ThePowerOfNow — REALLY? You’ve got to be kidding.. replace ‘conservative’, a political leaning, with a race or religion?And then to pseudo-threaten Discover as if hordes of conservative blog-responders will descend or maybe conservatives will cancel their subscription to the magazine (which would probably lower their readership by about .0001%)? Perhaps you were distracted while writing your response? Maybe one too many drinks? Hmmm.

Tommy

What a bunch of nonsense. As my father a scientist(Microbologist) says “Crappy data in…crappy data out”. And as a scientist myself, an Ecologist; I can say this quoting of obviously “unscientific” study parameters is so broad as to have no merit whatsoever in the context of empirical data that could be deduced as facts! Really what it comes down to is that Chris Mooney is a Journalist first and formost and that alone; tells me that this put together writing is nothing but politcal spin fitting his political lean to push an politcal agenda that points to what politcal ideology is superior in rationality according to a preset of parameters designed to lean one way or the other given to what his spin is politcally!

Prentice

While reading throught all the comments on this article it dawned on me that Discover may be publishing the results of studies that can”t be substantiated. This(in my opinion) is not good. As a publisher of a science based magazine the editors should be very careful and research these studies so as to be sure these articles are true and unbiased. Readers have strong feelings about their beliefs and they will generally let them be known. Articles like this one could cause Discover to lose quite a few subscriptions. Including my own.

Karin Cavanaugh

I would still be a democrat if the party hadn’t begun embracing agendas that I as a Christian can no longer live with. Even though I still agree with many of their other issues, I cannot vote for a party that endorses abortion. I suspect this issue is at the heart of many conversions.

PowerOfNow

I read part of the “study” this article refers too. It made this claim and stated it as a fact.

“Conservatives blame poverty on self-indulgence and on a lack of moral standards….”

Really??? Does this sound familiar? Those rich people with thier yachts. They don’t have to work for all that money (self indulgence). They are greedy and corrupt (lack of moral standards). These are generalizations of a liberal thinker. A premise just as incorrect as his.

This kind of generalization is not science. It is very biased and hurtful.

olympus Mons

Oddly enough not a single comment about Jonathan Haid’s work:

a) Liberals use only two of the five moral pillars that humans seem to share all around the planet, therefore a conservative is just a more complex being then a liberal.
b) Of all the 5 socio-politic groups (very liberal, liberal, moderates, conservative , very conservative) the only ones… the only ones… that cannot adequately represent the other groups point of view are the liberals and very liberals.
c) Others have identify that liberals are dominated by a larger ACC (anterior cingulated cortex) and amongst other things ACC is responsible for “Effort discounting”. Meaning, “if its difficult then I don’t want to do it”.

Just a couple of avenues that you could use to expand your research. Anyway, others already mentioned bias, didn´t they?

olympus Mons

Now that we are at it…

Being a liberal is a leftover of the Paleolithic, forager, societies and (in very liberal particularly) is the remaining of those Paleolithic tribes that were “Cad “societies (Cads vs Dads). Humans were stuck in the Paleolithic for 150,000 years so the brand of these “Cads” in our epigenetics is still very large. Cads, lived (event today like the yonomano) in groups and are called Cads because “it takes a village” to raise their children (very low parental effort, they like to do other stuff) instead of a family and actually leave of the work of others (mostly women which provide 85% of calorie intake) and in time of scarceness they just decide to “spread the wealth” naturally of the other tribes (they pillage)… You get the picture.

Then it came the Neolithic (10,000 Ya), the farmers, and the “Dads” took over the planet. That’s when the “conservative” took over the planet. They knew that if they work hard (screw effort discounting!) they “stayed the course” most often than not they could harvest the result. So conservatives, sorry Neolithic farmers, knew that you “reap what you sow” and that it takes a “family to raise a child” (hence the Dad) not a village and so forth… you get the picture.

YeaRight

Conservative and liberal “terms”? What?

Of course I can already guess they called “civil rights” liberal and “authority” conservative. What about how conservatives completely disregard scientific “authority” on global warming and what about how pro-lifers think fetuses need “civil rights”?

Sam i am

While the liberals and conservatives spit insults at each other Washington is raping us all. Its obvious their divide and conquer ploy is working beautifully.

Divided we fall, and now we’ve all fallen so low we are all licking the boots of our new Orwellian overlords.

FullySecular

Divided we fall indeed.

Bongstar420

But gay abortions are ruining the country…and the illegal coloreds took our jerbs!

LP9086

This overly condescending and ridiculous character generalization about people IS the problem. Get off Twitter and talk to a real person who’s a conservative in less than 140 characters. Talk to them like a human being. You might find that all Republicans aren’t “uneducated”, “ignorant”, “racists”.

Mekronid

You’re right. But despite their education, their attempts to be informed, and their denial of racist causes, they’re still stupid when it comes to voting for their own best interests. I think that suggests a larger problem than mere generalization.

LP9086

1 You say republicans are “attempting to be informed” but they aren’t. This is just another ignorant generalization.

2. Most republicans don’t “deny” that racisms exists.

3. I love how you presume to know what’s in everyone’s best interest when it comes to voting. Again, just another another example of identity politics, sweeping generalizations, and complete lack of perspective when discussing what educated republicans actually believe. Simply put, YOU are the problem.

Mekronid

I could respond to all that, but you aren’t going to listen. You’ll respond with Republican talking points instead of using your brain. I can personally guarantee this. Your use of the term ‘liberal’ without ever knowing my political views is how I can tell.

You call me “the problem” while acting as a shill for a major political party? Hah. What a farce.

beaminup

And you have nothing but liberal talking points. What’s your point? Sick of the party who created the KKK having the audacity to claim GOP is racist.

Now political bigotry is used by the left in the same way that racism was used by hitler. You dehumanize us so you can say whatever you want about us. In your mind we are subhuman. Only problem is that NONE of what you believe we believe is true.

Mekronid

I’m independent, not affiliated with Democrats. The GOP isn’t really racist, right? They’re just very pro-white and pro-rich. So yeah, I don’t know if they are racist. But based on your comments, you almost definitely are.

beaminup

You are a political bigot, obviously. Calling me a racist when you have no idea who i am or what i am.

Republicans are not about the rich, whether you are independent or not you are believing the fool liberal line. Republicans want everyone to be prosperous, democrats want everyone on handouts. Then they can scare you into believing that Republicans want to take away your handouts. Democrats hate the poor, they only care in as much that they can win a vote from the poor. Republicans actually want the poor to succeed.

The only difference between a political bigot and a nazi is the rules they use to split people up. Political bigots label their opponents with labels, like racist, sexist, …ist, to make people hate their opponents. Then, like you, use that excuse to smear and abuse their opponents. So in a way you are just like a nazi. Nazis saw jews as less than human. You see Republicans as less than human. Gives you an excuse for poor behavior. You may not kill people as nazis did but you use the same kind of reasoning. Anybody who is against you is automatically a racist.

Mekronid

The sad part is, Democrats DO want everyone on handouts. Yet you still believe your own party can “do no evil.”

I called you racist because you defended the Republican party’s blatant class war tactics with a comment about the KKK. If that’s not racist then what is?

beaminup

The class war was started by democrats they have been attacking Republicans for so long with the stupid identy politics, which is what you really mean when uou talk about class warfare, that we are left with no other solution than to use the only language that they seem to understand to refute the lies. It is democrats that are conquer and divide and want you to believe hat you belong to a certain class and need to behave as such. It is really stupid. It is a distraction from what we should be doing. Recognizing thst some democrat ideas are good some are bad. Some republican ideas are good some are bad. If we recognize that fact then we can stop this nonsense and talk about the issues and actually get back to solving problems. But democrats are unehicsl and only care about winning at all costs. Just look at schumer 2013, shutdown is “legislative arson”. Then 2018 shutdown is necessary. If he was ethical he would do what is right because it is right and rhe actions would not changed based on wjo is doing the action.

Mekronid

Democrats create class wars while Republicans sell out to the highest bidder. Sounds like the two work just fine together.

beaminup

I do not like RINO’s. Mitch McConnell needs to go. Paul Ryan is not much better. But Nancy Pelosi is a senile nightmare, and Chuck Schumer is a big baby. We need new blood in our legislature. When they, both party members, have been there too long they begin to act like royalty, as if we owe them something.. That is why we need convention of states. Congress needs term limits also.

patthematty

Politicians on both sides and even the independents are starting to act like aristocracy. Corruption is growing and growing.

GnosticKunoichi

The right jokes about “libtards”, the fact is, the right has their own version: who are just as bigoted and intolerant, who are just as easily triggered and are their own version of virtue signaling hypocrites. Both sides have their dreck, who comes through that sieve is a rare minority indeed.

Tony2xTimez 2xTimez

Ding-Ding-Ding…Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner! In an overwhelming show of force, intestinal fortitude and mental superiority; “beaminup” has curbed stomped “Mekronid” back to grammar school. Mekronid was hit so hard from all sides that his relatives felt it. Damn I wish I was here when this went down. Great Job!!!!!

beaminup

iphone keyboard. phaaat thumbs. 😉

GnosticKunoichi

The 1%’s biggest trick is to get the 99% to fight one another, as a distraction to keep you occupied while the 1% goes off to commit more atrocities.

kiljoy616

They never had to trick anyone into hatting people just tend to do so. The idea that the USA was ever united is an oxymoron. In the end the winner takes all that is the natural state of things. The weak are trampled by the strong and there are plenty of layers of power to keep everyone fighting for centuries to come.

Esef Veliz

But what’s a “Republican class war tactic”? Doing what Mekronid said, wanting to be prosperous? Am I safe saying you have nothing against minorities who want that, while espousing conservative, traditional values, ethics for themselves and their families? Because that’s how it is for alot of minorities and there’s many who are Republican and traditional Democrat and when I say traditional Democrat I mean it as coming from the JFK school of equality thought. I have no party but even I know both parties are equally filled with problems, however as of late, for the past 2 decades most of the problems are coming from an extremely radicalized left state ideology. I have nothing for/against Trump and I don’t fear him. For what? He’s just another mortal like everyone else. All I see, since 20 years ago leaving the left, is conservatives trying to defend themselves from its onslaught and clean up their party that’s turned into a mirror of what they don’t like about the left. If you don’t like acknowledging this believe me I don’t either I used to be a militant minority leftist marching and banging a Brown Beret democrat drum. Take it from me the left has lost its collective mind while it’s hate is relied on by its perpetrators to magically heal their tiny world. People’s hate is helping no one but themselves.

PrayingForMyCountry

Well stated!

zombiespacedog

Can you spout any more false stereotypes Mekronid? Utterly Ridiculous.

Mekronid

I could! But I very much prefer intellectual honesty. So, no, you won’t catch me making false stereotypes.

If you do – let me know. I’m more than willing to admit my mistakes. Unlike a certain set of political parties and their blind followers.

zombiespacedog

Exactly!

Patricia Trapasso

Don’t forget to take into consideration that the Media writing these articles are all liberal, being supported by Soros (google it). I don’t agree w/the liberal being smarter. Why would anyone vote Democratic when they’re all for a 2 tier justice system, open borders& globalization, which has shown in many other countries to be very deadly& wrong for the citizens? Also, Liberals are violent! They started, fund & support Antifa. If someone doesn’t have a liberal mindset, their reaction is to bash their head in. Conservatives may not agree w/liberals but we’re not violent & don’t feel the need to call out, insult & belittle Liberals every chance we get. We also respect the office of the President. While I didn’t like or agree w/Obama, I respected him as President. So Liberal Media, put that in your hat & smoke it!

Mekronid

Democrats obviously aren’t smarter considering the majority of Democratic policy is actually conservative. Gun rights? Republicans are more liberal than Democrats. Economics? Libertarians are more liberal than Democrats. Welfare? Socialists are more liberal than Democrats.

If we ignore Democrats and focus on real liberals, then yes, studies show liberals have a higher average I.Q.

If you choose to focus on violence then how about the last four wars? All were started by Republicans. Trump is shaping up for another major war in the Middle East.

Democrats are violent to their own people, Republicans are violent to others.

Conservatives and liberals want none of that.

PrayingForMyCountry

More valid points! While we don’t always get the candidate we want in the WH, the day after the election, we join hands to pray for the success of the new leader of our country. Those attacking with the onslaught of derogatory remarks trying to tear down “the pilot flying our plane” is the most ludicrous thing I’ve seen in my lifetime. Whether we like it or not, DJT has to and will have to make some pretty tough decisions for all citizens. I can’t imagine the inner turmoil a person who’s been personally attacked by the minute for more than 2 consecutive years must be experiencing. Whether you like him or not, praying & supporting the soundness of mind should be the minimum of every citizen w/out debate.

John

You can not prove Washington is doing it for sure ,but I do think were divided right now.
Abraham Lincoln
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Mark 3:25
If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if a household is divided against itself, that household won’t stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

Bongstar420

Washington has two bosses..The commoners and the rich

Currently, the rich have paid Washington to act against the interests of the commoners.

So we see things like tax cuts, deregulation, and agency dissolution on the agenda with executive overreach.

If the rich have paid Washington to act solely in their best interest, why were addinitional regulations and increased taxes enacted in the first place; why didn’t they actually help the commoners (like u say).

The problem isn’t what class of people govenrment is benefiting. The problem IS too much government.

Mike Arienti

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

LP9086

Sharing different political views doesn’t mean people can’t live together in a civil society.

Mekronid

If those views are antithetical to human rights then that statement is utterly false. Cut the billionares’ taxes some more why don’t you?

Hmmm. I don’t know what this means “put the rich in their place.” Is “rich” a permanent status? Because when you take all of their money, they’re not going to pay any more taxes. Then what happens to your beloved “supply side?”

The answer is right before you. Around here we call it “Venezuela.”

Reality and logic for the win!

Rudi

I think that he means that the wealthy can pay the tax rate of a plumber and still have enough left over to play royalty.

LP9086

They don’t pay the tax rates of a plumber. Have you ever looked at the tax rates for the wealthy?

Now, who pays for the national debt? Average households do, in terms of lost services. The rich don’t care. But the 1981 tax law has ensured all of the burden falls on the middle class. The 2018 tax law will accelerate the U.S.’s rapid disintegration.

The rich know they cannot attack the middle class from the tax brackets alone so they got creative. All thanks to our spendthrift Republican party. “Small government” pah. You people don’t even know how much your party spends.

Snoopy

These idiots don’t even know the burden of earning that much and respondsibility

beaminup

Ever looked at the tax rate for the poor? Why should someone who doesn’t pay any tax get money back from someone who did?

Rudi

Is there something wrong with a flat tax rate ? You just spiked the ball at the halftime whistle.

Snoopy

Liberals don’t care about facts unless it’s”their facts” based on their “feelings”

Rick Shonsite

Liberals hate America.

Mekronid

When was the last time you saw FOX News quoting a peer reviewed study? I’m betting it was not recently.

beaminup

Good question? Why is it that almost EVERY time MSM has to recant a false story, it is because of something revealed by FOX? Hmmm…. let thst sink in.

Mekronid

Fox is

THE
BIGGEST
MSM

In America

Go search the web for “Fox fake news.”

beaminup

Brian ross, brian hotstleter, polling oversampling.

You have not answered why it is that when MSM gets caught it is generally FOX who brings it out.

As far as fox accuracy. Most of that crap can be disproven if you have an attention span longer than a nat. Most of the supposed inaccuracies are eventually proven to be false. Just like the surveiling of trump’s campaign. All MSM were rolling over themselves with laughter that fox and mark levin were talking about surveillance of trump’s campaign. Then CNN the same news channel who had been mocking fox and levin for believing that trump had been surveiled, got the leak that one of trumps team had in fact been surveilled. The irony escaped everyone except those of us who had been paying attention all along.

Mekronid

Easy question to answer. It’s because ALL MSM is owned by someone with an agenda. Fox included. They’re all fake.

beaminup

No the point is that fox is only fake if you have no memory. Almost every time people claim fox is wrong, through time and enough details come out and they are proven correct. BUT, and this is a big but, by that time MSM has already moved onto the next fake story where they claim fox is wrong until months later we find out AGAIN, that fox was right all along. Details almost always vindicate FOX.

Mekronid

Riiiight… Keep sipping that Kool-Aid man.

PrayingForMyCountry

That is correct. They’ve been spot on with just about everything, especially regarding the FBI/DOJ. They also have a few of their own AntiTrumps ado you get to see both sides instead of a forced narrative. The rest is the MSM (#CultMedia) in all honesty does not believe tje citizens of the US are Intilligent enough to make their own decisions with all the facts so they only allow you to see one side of information. The most important person to watch is the Fox contributor Sarah Carter. She’s the one with the single most insider intelligence and has not gotten one thing wrong that she’s reported on that was coming down the pike or breaking. She’s got the 411 so if she says it, I’d bet on it.

Mekronid

Rich is not a permanent status, but they and you are working hard to make it so.

LP9086

There are plenty of RICH democrats. Almost every trail attorney and young lawyer I know are hardcore democrats.

roshan.perera

Classic retardlican mentality.

beaminup

Ever gotten a wage from a homeless person, or broke? I got a great idea lets take away all rich people’s money then lets see just how much money you have when no one is left to pay your salary.

Mekronid

Ever gotten your wage from a rich person? Unless you’re a servant or chef, the answer is no. Corporations and the government pay wages.

beaminup

Corporations are business. Businesses are started by people. Corporations are just people who had a big enough idea hat they were able to sell enough that they could become big. As far as government paying. Your not serious right? Gov does not pay anything. Taxes pay government bills. The gov has no money but what they take from you. As we are a gov by the people for the people the gov is you. So you pay the gov bill. Not the government.

Think about this, if there were no corporations, just how much money would be in the system to tax?

Mekronid

Corporations are comprised of many different people, not just one rich guy.

By your logic, businesses also have no money but what they take from you. Look into DARPA, HHS, Manhattan Project, LIGO, etc. You can realize that the government produces just as many groundbreaking projects as corporations.

Examine Mongolia. They had no corporations. But they were the first country to invent fiat currency because their tax base was too large to support with gold and silver exchange.

beaminup

No, You chose to buy a product from a corporation. If you do not like that corporation or that product then you don’t buy. I don’t own a ford vehicle. By your flawed logic Ford corporation is taking money from me. On the other hand I have no choice in what I pay for taxes. See the difference?

Mekronid

Ford corporation IS taking money from you. They lobbied congress to block the sale of trucks from outside the U.S. Ever wonder why you don’t see a Toyota pickup truck? It’s because Ford and others want to keep prices high and competition low.

beaminup

Actually, ever lived outside of the US? This happens to be the only country I have been in where a pick-up truck exists.

That aside I have in fact seen Toyota trucks here so what is your point? Ever heard of the Toyota Tacoma?

Mekronid

Sigh… Just, look up the Chicken Tax. There are dozens of pickup truck models not available in the U.S. because of this tax. And you pay more on Ford trucks directly because of this tax.

Alternately, you can keep arguing this point, which would mean you’re admitting defeat via ignorance.

beaminup

Are you really that dense? You are missing the forest for the trees. We have a business. If we set our prices too high then people chose not to come. By your flawed argument we as business owners are taking money from uou whether you come to our business or not. That is just plain stupid. You do not have a choice whether you are taxed or not. You do have a choice whether you buy from a business or not.

Mekronid

Not true at all. The big businesses set their own taxes and can charge whatever they want. They’re the only game in town so what choice do you have? Study the early 1900s. The many monolithic monopolies and the people who died to form unions and the people who suffered greatly to break the monopolies after the 1929 stock market crash.

They died and suffered so you could run your puny business. Your business would not exist if not for them. So next time you call someone dense and tout your business, maybe you should think about that.

brian

wow, 5 years ago, look at that splitting insult, I’ll try to get back to you a liberal is calling me a racist because I don’t agree with BLM

http://www.myspace.com/drlarrymitchell drlarrymitchell

Yeah, but you sound stupid while doing it.

Jimmy Lin

This article is either an attempt at a nuanced satire, or the ranting of a truly insane mind.

SynMonger

I’m dumber for having read this. Thanks.

justthebest

Did you even LOOK at the studies he cites, or just judging because you don’t like the conclusions?

All jews are always innocent

There are other ways to interpret the data

justthebest

Surely you are not implying that no one should mention a study until it has been replicated? Replication goes to the strength of the conclusions, but does not make the initial study irrelevant and unworthy of consideration.

justthebest

“closed-minded liberalism?!” That is an oxymoron. And, a moronic statement.

CanofSand

You’re seriously going to label others’ statements as moronic as you use the term “oxymoron” in an objectively, incontestably incorrect fashion?

LP9086

“Closed-Minded Liberalism” is a redundant statement…

justthebest

That’s an interesting thought. I’ve always maintained that liberals care more about others than themselves and conservatives are unashamedly more interested in themselves.

justthebest

uh-huh. You needed a study to realize that?

justthebest

“Sinister?!” Paranoid, much? ; )

CanofSand

From the viewpoint of any informed person with real morals, leftists push evil and “progressivism” IS evil, so calling that “paranoid” just shows your own moral failings.

justthebest

You are talking to the wrong people. When I see evidence that a program isn’t working, I say, “how do we fix it?” I do NOT say “throw it out” but I don’t close my eyes and pretend it’s working. I often think, though, that conservatives are looking for an excuse to keep “their” money, and will use any reason to end a government paid program.

justthebest

Sounds like good science to me.

Michael Mason

What about the science of racial differences? Is that a field liberals tend to be knowledgeable in? Look up Nobel Laureate molecular geneticist James Watson’s discussion of why Africa continues to be a failure.

CapsPsycho

Thanks for being honest enough to share that very salty comment, Michael Mason – it really highlights a big difference between liberals and conservatives.

Actually, much of the social sciences is the “science of racial differences” inasmuch as those differences are the political and economic results of power asymmetry. A lot of liberals are attracted to these fields of study because they see racial power asymmetry as a social problem, because that’s the cause of a lot of antisocial behavior.

On the other hand, lots of conservatives are disinterested in those sorts of studies, preferring the kinds of biological racial studies that were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Objects of study tells you a lot about the perception of problems. Medical researchers focus on disease in order to overcome them. Economists study market failures to avoid them. Criminologists study crimes to prevent them. So why would white people want to study the behavior of black people in this way?

When I’ve been with conservatives one-on-one (white-on-white), in situations where they were comfortable enough to really let their hair down, many of them have told me that, truly, they see the very existence of non-white races themselves as the social problem. They believe that the antisocial behaviors you see in ghettos are immutable racial characteristics. That doesn’t make for good science, because nobody wants to do it rigorously – you see the same depravity in black ghettos and white trailer parks, but fans of this “science” control for that by refusing to problematize white trailer parks.

When conservatives itch for a hard biological science of race, what they are looking for aren’t objective phenotypic markers – they are testing racist hypotheses. And to what end?

That’s the real question I’d pose to you – what if you’re right? What if all of your worst assumptions about black people are proven scientifically correct? What is the answer? What does that information let socieity do, going forward? Presumably, you want that information in order to solve a social problem, right? So what would the solutions be?

Michael Mason

Racial differences certainly exist. I can’t tell from all your writing if you’ve quite accepted that fact yet or not.

To believe that genetic traits such as intelligence are distributed equally among all human populations is a pipe-dream that negates the very basics of Darwinian evolution. Within humanity, races that evolved in colder, harsher, northern areas such as Europeans and Northeast Asians, developed higher cognitive and creative abilities than races that lived in warmer places closer to the equator. If a subspecies evolves in an area that is more difficult to survive, they become smarter. Subspecies that evolve in places that are easier to survive remain stagnant.

Now, as for the modern day political situation in the Western World, you ask, if all my theories are correct, what is to be done? Well it’s no secret that our government is controlled by evil men who want to flood the country with ethnic groups from the third world. They want to turn America into a multicultural country, instead of the white European country that it used to be. This is slow genocide. They want to blot out our race by diversifying our society to the point were miscegenation happens on a large scale and the coming generations get more and more brown. The establishment also has effectively reduced the white birthrate to below the replacement level with the use of feminism and sexually pervasive influences like homosexuality and pornography.

We have a situation in America that is effectively reverse-eugenics if you will. We have programs and an immigration policy that help the stupider, weaker segments of the population produce more babies (programs like child support and welfare), and ideas that encourage the smarter not to have babies.

Our government wants to turn this country into a third world cesspool. Why? Because the government is indirectly controlled by a tribe of alien infiltrators who have long struggled with our people and have come to desire our total destruction.

What is to be done? Revolution; an overthrow of the government. That’s sounds really extreme and quixotic you might say. Well it’s the only solution. The Republicans and Democrats alike are working for the enemies of our people. Our problems cannot be solved democratically. The constitution wasn’t even designed to function in a society were public opinion is so heavily controlled by Hollywood and the mass media.

You may not take anything I say seriously, but in 2016 when the liberals get another traitor into the white house because they retain the minority voting bloc and conservatives fail miserably like I know they will… What will you think then?

The only way to prevent the United States of America from turning into a third world country is for white people to violently overthrow the government.

CapsPsycho

Have you been approached by any duly authorized representatives of “White People” asking for your advocacy?

Until they do, you should stop assuming that you represent “our” interests. In case you haven’t figured this out, in general, “we” find your beliefs and attitudes despicable. They are the symbol of the pariah because they are widely held to be disgusting.

Not only are the ideas themselves revolting, but in general, the kinds of people who seem to volunteer to represent “my race” generally have few other accomplishments to boast of, and that’s why they boast of the accidents of their birth.

Michael Mason

You have no idea who I am, but right off the bat you start making assumptions about what type of a person I am. You have been conditioned by the establishment to assume that anyone with my opinions and ideas is a redneck who lives in a trailer park. That is what is really pathetic. That you think you can make assumptions on my personal character and scorn me simply because my beliefs fall beyond what you have been programmed to accept. You have been programmed to think that only weak minded people have feelings of racial affinity. My God, western society has fallen far.

It’s depressing to see that you actually believe that race is irrelevant, and that a racially-mixed society can survive for very long. You’re in for a rude awakening.

You don’t understand why I even profess the things I believe. I clearly recognize that most white people have been systematically deprived of their racial identity and love of history, kin, and culture. I am trying to re-awaken a healthy appreciation of western heritage, and the desire for racial solidarity in white people.

I don’t base my actions off of what I believe to be socially acceptable like you do. I base them off what I believe is right.

QuantumDissonance

Africa continues to be a failure because it is consistently being raped economically by the countries around it (its own internal genocides notwithstanding). Onto race. Racial affinity and the odd thing you are describing are not the same thing. It has been proven irrevocably that a baby of a particular race responds more favorably to those that resemble its mother. That is racial affinity. Believing that your race is inherently “more deserving” or “better” is supremacy. I don’t know what race you are, and I won’t assume, but given your beliefs I’m sure you probably believe me to be white. Intriguing. Before you assume, I am nobody’s liberal. I dislike people too much to ascribe to that ideology. You remind me why I dislike people.

Moving forward. You claim that people who evolved in “colder climates become smarter” to paraphrase? That makes no sense in reference to my home country, since we are a temperate country yet consistently remain smarter than the majority of you. I’d love to read the data and proof you have of this assumption that intellect is based on the climate one evolved in, since I’m sure you have some explanation as to why I was able to obtain a master’s degree. With my inferior brown genes. I think you might be confused as to what survival of the fittest actual means, but it is the most adaptable creatures that survive. Not the smartest. I won’t get into the rest of what you said, because quite frankly, it is a 3-year-old comment and I find you increasingly uninteresting.

Anywho, I hope after 3 years you have come to your senses but I doubt it. You’re a very strange human, since you believe yourself to be right. That makes you no different than the one you were arguing with previously, since belief doesn’t turn ideology into truth like you seem to think it does. Have a healthy life and try not to die too quickly. I’d like you to survive long enough to see the folly of your flawed beliefs.

Brian Bayley

This is a science magazine? This article shows how “science” can be skewed to “prove” bias. The authors probably have also “proven” that global warming is caused by CO.

capthiltz

Funny, 99% of the other studies and research I have seen suggest that conservatives react in a more primitive, act without thinking, non caring about anyone other than themselves behavior. One doesn’t even have to rely on studies. Just look at how Tea Party reps in Congress conduct themselves and how conservative owners of large businesses act. Heck, just observe the driving habits of those who have Confederate flags or bumper stickers of conservative talking points on their vehicles. They are usually the ones cutting off drivers, not letting others merge and otherwise doing a hole moves on the roadways.

BangZoom!

Reading dailyKOS and HuffPo blogs is not “research” skippy. M’kay?

capthiltz

A) My name isn’t skippy and B) I didn’t use the sources you listed as for my research. Just settle down.

82nd Airborne

Yes. Quit being a dumb redneck biased jerk. We already have one of those in the WH. Only diff is you are poor and soon won’t have healthcare. Nice job silly guy.

Rudi

“Dumb redneck biased jerk” lol.

LP9086

Liberal-think in a nutshell…Every republican is a “dumb redneck”

John

I do I agree confederate flags are bad ,and there is such thing as being too extreme on the right hand as is the same on the left. However take note you have no evidence to back that the majority of studies are against this study.large business will always Be completely ruthless that is just capitalism. Now back up what your saying about the biased of this study with a single fact.
I am more inclined to agree with BangZoom as of right now it seems your going off feelings.

mikeburke

I’m sure the right would give up its stupid confederate flag if the left would give up the ridiculous homosexual flag. It’s an even trade in the idiocy space.

Rudi

The “right”, or the south ?

LP9086

Just the Tranny movement

Jawcapabra

Come to Boston or SF and check yourself how liberals drive. Can’t be worse than that. In fact, MA has been recognized as ‘worst’ drivers in nation.

Heywood Jablome

Given the FACT that ninety five percent of ALL liberals have an education level of GED or LESS and a paycheck of 8.15/hr or less. They are the BOTTOM of the economic, educational, social, and intelligence gene pool. Libtardation has been classified as a mental disease by the AMA and APA

capthiltz

Ummm, I consider myself to be a liberal (a progressive is the term I actually prefer) and make almost $20/hr, have three years of college and am a certified and practicing phlebotomist. Most of my co workers at the hospital where I work are also liberal, make as much or more than I do and have 4 to 6 years of college under their belts. Please cite your sources on the percentages and other “information” you quoted.

Heywood Jablome

US STATE DEPT., NATIONAL BUREAU OF LABOR, IRS, NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRY US CENSUS BUREAU 1960-2010 INCLUSIVE, NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATITSTICS, US DEPT OF EDUCATION, AND ON AND ON.. PHLEBOTOMY..REALLY… ITS A NON DEGREED 6 WEEK PROGRAM THAT REQUIRES THE INTELLECT AD SKILL SET OF YOUR AVERAGE 14 YEAR OLD.. (THEY USUALLY ASSIGN THAT TASK TO HIGH SCHOOL KIDS) ,, AND AVERAGE PAY IS 9.20/HR. YOURE LAUGHABLE AT BEST…LAUGHABLE.. YOUR PEER GROUP ARE JANITORS, CASHIERS, PARKING LOT ATTENDANTS, ORDERLIES, ETC. JUST STOP BREATHING.LEMME GUESS YOU WENT TO A TENTH TIER COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND COULDNT HACK IT AND SAW A TV AD. WHAT A FAILURE YOU ARE..LIKE IN ALL THINGS IM CORRECT AND INFALLIBLE. YOUR MOTHER WEEPS IN SHAME DAILY THERE WASNT A TWIG OR COAT HANGER HANDY..GO AWAY AND MAKE ME SOME FRIES ….DOLT

owlcool

Maybe you should actually link some sources instead of typing in all caps.
The “All Caps” button isn’t the “Turns this into Truth” button.

82nd Airborne

What a silly fool you are. LOL bipolar and off your meds it appears. I happy that we’ll soon educate your kind out of existence sooner than later. Oh and my fav how will you like being without healthcare soon and you with your kidneys failing due to excessive cans of “bud”. What a fool you are. LOL LOL LOL

Even his name says “I’m an angry punk teenager who can’t get a girlfriend”.

mikeburke

$20 whole dollars? Wow. You are progressive. Phlebotomy is one of the tougher bars to raise in medicine. How long was your course of study and intership? Conratulations. Perhaps next a Rhodes Scholarship?

82nd Airborne

How clever you are making fun of someone because of what they earn just because you don’t like their views? I wonder if you even work or rather spend the day playing video games in your parents basement while drinking cheap beer.

Heywood Jablome

Wrong again fucktard..i can not waitvto cave your head in

beaminup

I do not agree with his political stance, but there is nothing wrong with being a phlebotomist. The world needs all kinds of skills. Just imagine how much food we would eat if everyone was a brain surgeon.

82nd Airborne

You realize that putting “FACT” in caps doesn’t make it true correct? Generally anyone stating 95, 97, 99% numbers is just making things up with the exception of the 99% fact that trump will go down in flames. Liberals look at both sides with logic and understanding. Repulsive cans just shout and only consider one side of an argument regardless of how silly it is. And why do you people shout so much all the time? Do lies require more energy to communicate? Makes me sad to have served a country with these types of people in it but that is what freedom is all about.

Heywood Jablome

wrong again fuckstain.. i can not wait to beat you with a switch i make you cut your self ..now go make me fries little bitch

Tim Mueller

This excerpt from the book of “Pulling nonsense out of your a$$.”

Rudi

Heck, take a look at the wage gap in the Democratic Party, the collusion between them and the media, the secret promises to Wall Street etc etc etc read Malcolm’s “political chumps” speech.

BangZoom!

and yet a recent study by a Yale law professor showed that the most conservative as represented by the Tea Party showed more highly developed scientific inquiry skills than all other identified political groups.

http://reimaginingcordoba.com Chris Cam Smith

Now that’s funny! Hahahahaha! Don’t a disproportionately high number of tea partiers deny the findings of climate scientists and want to teach creationism in schools? Give me a break…

BangZoom!

You don’t realize it, but your post gives further credence to the findings of that Yale study.
But thanks to replying to a post I made over a year ago.

steve

Perfect response. Well done

Guest

Actually, not really because he obviously missed the point of that Yale study and what it actually said.

beaminup

It may have been over a year ago, but you never know who might read it later, and be influenced by what they see. that is in part why I sometimes comment on old posts.

Jeremy

Well yeah, they think it snowing means climate change is not real. Clearly not understanding the difference between weather and climate.

JC

Man-made climate change is not real and neither was the mini ice age the same people tried to scare the US population in the 1980’s. A large portion of the data has been changed to get to the desired outcome. One reason it is a 1.5 trillion dollar annual business. The concept is no different from the vitamin/supplement industry that happens to get people to spend 25 billion in 2015.
The pills, capsules, and powders make up 5 percent of all grocery sales in the United States. Their profit margins, however, are about 10 times as high as those of food items. It is about the money and you wondered why it always requires more and more of your money?

Ryan Wheeler

You are a dope. I sure hope you don’t reproduce

LP9086

Why isn’t it called “Global Warming” anymore? Why is it “Climate Change” now?

Wendyh91

Because people don’t know the difference between weather and climate. The word “warming” mislead people who don’t have a basic understanding of geology. They think that just because it snowed one day in their local city, that the overall average temperature of the earth hasn’t risen. They don’t understand how rising global temperature affects local weather.

JC

It is not hard to deny climate scientist since most of the data is faked. The reason come down to research funding (big dollars) Science has become a giant info commercial that sells fear and for 1 billion I can come up with a solution. The solution is always more dollars. Christopher Booker writes for Britain’s The Telegraph that climate data from stations in South America have been adjusted since the 1950s to give the impression that the earth’s temperature is rising more than the original data showed. (FAKED) Your next comment was creationism. Regardless of your personal feelings
on the matter, the wants and needs of the many outweigh the wants and needs of the few and according to a poll of several thousand Americans, 20% of the people want evolution only, 18% want creationism only. The other people want both taught: evolution in the science class, and creation in a philosophy class. Either way you look at it, that’s a decent chunk of people asking for the same thing. You don’t even need that many people to agree on something to elect the president.

Daniel

Luckily the 1st Amendment will ultimately prevent religious indoctrination from happening in public schools. Admittedly it will be touch and go for a while, but I have faith in this Nation.

Faithful Christian

Contrary to what you believe, the idea that nothing exploded and created everything we see today is not scientific. And the climate is constantly changing. It was even changing before the 1st century AD(baffling, isn’t it?).

LP9086

Yet liberals deny the most basic science; Boys have a penis & girls have a vagina.

beaminup

Only because most Tea Partiers have been around long enough to realize that over the past 4 decades or so, most of the dire predictions of the doomsday scientists have failed. But you can go on believing in snake oil if you want. But if I were you I would spend a little less time following chicken little predictions and a little more time verifying whether they were right before or not.

owlcool

And yet those Tea Partiers are stereotypically religious, and scientists are far more likely to be agnostic or atheistic, as opposed to the general population.
As Admitted by Friggin Christian Apologetics.

BangZoom!

I guess . I attend or more accurately attended Tea Party meetings in NH and the topic of religion never came up ever. One of my undergraduate degrees is in one of the pure sciences, but don’t know if it qualifies me as a “scientist.” I guess it would if I signed something saying AGW is a reality and we had to destroy America and the free market system to “save the world from catastrophe.”

owlcool

1. What degree? I am curious.
2. Attended? Does that mean you don’t anymore? Does that mean you aren’t a member of the tea party?
3. There are more scientists named Steve that accept evolution then scientists that believe in Young Earth Creationism.

Argument Clinic

You’re right! Ted Cruz is such a scientific genius!

Tim Mueller

Was that professor also a libertarian?

Mike McTighe

Age: I find a lot of Liberals are younger, and many modern Conservatives probably once would’ve referred to themselves as Liberal. I think when people get older they tend to slow down, and get a better sense of preparation and planning for the future. So their personal decisions start to become more Conservative. Go out drinking tonight? Can’t. Have to pay my mortgage. Have to feed my animal. Have to take care of my family. As I get older the desire for a savoir diminishes, and the world isn’t really trying to promise me one anymore anyways. All the music and movies are geared towards the young now, and I’m old, probably going to die soon (jk).
Also Liberals tend to be idealists. We all go through this period where we realize that reality doesn’t meet our expectations. Our first reaction is to challenge reality (being Liberal) and our second reaction is to change our expectations (Conservative). Liberals often claim to the youth notion that an evil deceiver is keeping us a few laws away from Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia. Then when they’re in charge they realize how much hard work it is just to keep the world in kind of crappy shape. And soon it’ll be their children stamping their feet, telling them “they didn’t build that” and telling them how stupid they are.

The Mouse

I was one of those: a brain dead liberal in my 20s. Now into my 40s, I finally turned around. As someone who grew up in poverty, in the ghettos of the 80s South Bronx, and as a person of color, I grew up indoctrinated to believe that “Whitey” was out to oppress us (including poor Whites… go figure), that every White person was a racist (again, including poor Whites) and that we couldn’t escape poverty because again “Whitey” was keeping us down (even the poor Whites, because though they were poor and White, they still had “white privilege”).

It wasn’t until I went to college, and became successful, stayed childless way into my 40s (still am) and responsibly saved money that I realized that if I could make it this far, and be surrounded by lots of White folks (who have all been kind to me; from teachers to employers), then I wasn’t oppressed after all!! If anything, I started making trips to my old neighborhood (I had since lived all over the country, from Seattle to rural Wisconsin) that I realized how irresponsible most of my old peers had been and how they lacked any sense of accountability and personal responsibility for how their lives turned out.

Of course, I was the “race traitor” for moving out of the ghetto, for speaking “White” and for wanting a better life. But what I noticed consistently was their bashing of Whitey, their distrust of the police, of authority, that their poverty was cyclical because of government and racism. I then knew that this defeatist attitude is what the liberalism I grew up with taught us to believe; that we would never amount to anything because society owed us. They felt they were entitled to welfare and food stamps; even though they were the ones having multiple kids out of wedlock, they were the ones not wanting to aspire to college even though many opportunities existed for low-cost college catering to minorities (they saw it as “Being White” if they pursued education) and they were the ones making bad life choices.

I then started reading books on conservatism; just so I could familiarize myself with the “enemy” and in doing so, I came to see a lot of great points of view about personal responsibility and hard work. I then realized that liberalism is about making excuses, blaming everyone else except oneself and hating on successful people; in an effort to take from those who WERE RESPONSIBLE to give to the IRRESPONSIBLE. That is not “Social Justice” but THEFT! That is how I became a Conservative.

QuantumDissonance

I’m having a hard time reading this without laughing. “Whitey”? Really? I grew up in an impoverished neighborhood too, Mr. Black Man, and I don’t recall any of my peers referring to white people in that manner. I also don’t recall anyone saying the white man is “keeping us down” inasmuch as they felt that the white man invited us to play poker with him. While keeping all of the best cards under the table. But if you were actually a black person, you’d know that. You don’t have to show me your “black card”, this comment type is fairly common here. You see, white folks feel the need to try and undermine race relations with stories like this. I’ve seen it many times in my 55 years on this planet. And if you ARE one of those deluded blacks, then I salute you, for you have proven that being in a self-deluded fantasy isn’t a mostly white endeavor.

Why are you deluded, your brain might be asking me. Well, dear person, you’re deluded because you committed one of the greatest internet crimes known to man! A logical fallacy. This one in particular I like to refer to as an “anecdotal fallacy”. An anecdotal fallacy is when you use a personal experience or isolated incident as evidence instead of compelling reasoning or ACTUAL evidence. (White people love anecdotes like yours because it makes them feel better.) You claim, since white people were nice to you and that you were able to get somewhere in life, all other black people must be either lazy or ignorant. (Which is a stance many racists have.) By your logic, I could claim that childbirth couldn’t possibly be painful since I’ve never personally experienced it; any woman saying so is just whining. See the dangers of being illogical? Your personal life experiences don’t invalidate the claims of others that have experienced the opposite. As far as your claims that white people would never oppress other whites? There is that Holocaust thing. Unless you believe that didn’t happen? Many other things you mentioned as well sort of irked me. “Being a race traitor” for moving out of the ghetto? For seeking education? This sounds less and less like a person recounting a personal tale, and more and more like someone speaking about what they don’t understand. In my neighborhood, people struggled and strive to work. People wanted education. Wanted to speak better. Wanted to go to college. Wanted to make their lives better than they were. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have worked so hard to help me escape the ghetto like I did. You’re doing nothing but spouting stereotypes, which again makes me question you.

All in all, your comment was laughable, and painted people with very familiar broad strokes(sweeping generalizations if that was too hard for you to understand). It is a good thing you didn’t have children, so at least your genes will die with you. “Conservatives” like you, make me just as sick as the liberals who don’t understand what sustainability is. Enjoy the rest of your life and try not to trip over your own hubris. Americans seem to have pretty large amounts of it.

The Mouse

You can question me all you want, but I am a Blatino (look it up, as you seem to question my heritage and authenticity) born in ’69 to a welfare mother and father (both Boricuas; again look it up) in NYC; the burnt-out boogie-down Bronx (Dawson Street). I grew up being bashed by my own kind for “taking White” and for having White friends. If you have never heard Latinos/Blatinos and Blacks refer to Whites as “Whitey”, then maybe it is regional. Did you grow up in the Bronx of the 80s? I think not.

I skimmed the rest of your rant because it is just that; a rant. I don’t have to provide numbers and statistics for you. I can provide my own experiences and experiences of those around me who also felt the same way (people I keep in touch with who, though they haven’t gone as far as moving to the Right like I did, feel cheated and frustrated that they made something of themselves, yet their peers and distant family members continue to blame others for their irresponsible choices and bash them for their success and their choice in Caucasian friends).

If you care to also know how it is that I validated my experiences; read John Mc Whorter’s “Losing the Race”. That book changed my life forever!! That is all I have to say. I think it is funny that you claim I am making broad generalizations, but you are the one automatically assuming I am Mr. BlackMan. How racist is that?!

mikeburke

Well, you should be proud of yourself. I sincerely hope your struggle will inspire others in the Black community which continues to languish relentlessly at the bottom of the societal ladder. Blacks need to learn what you learned. It’s what EVERY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP seems to have learned. Blacks need to cease positioning people like you as “Uncle Toms’ and less positioning Al Sharpton as a hero. Good work, more power to you!!!!!

mikeburke

Your response is far too intelligent for this audience. Nice job.

LP9086

Very well put..

Wendyh91

I found that to be true for myself. When I was younger I was extremely liberal because I hoped for us to live in harmony in some kind of utopia. Now that I’m older I’m in the middle with mixed views, though I lean left a bit. I believe the best thing for us is to have a good balance of both ideals. Not too much of either one, but just enough.

kart_125cc

There was judgmentalism in the implying that liberal conclusions are reached after greater thought is given and that conservatives reach conclusion with less thought. The judgmentalism is in both the implying of “sophisticated” or less “sophisticated” thinking. Also is the implication that more “thinking” necessarily leads to better conclusions. Note that in both cases, conclusions were reached with the _same_ information not with different or better information. That is, there is such a thing as “over thinking” a problem. More intensive navel-gazing does not yield more informed conclusions.

You aren’t going to necessarily reach a better conclusion to a simple question with limited information with greater contemplation. Greater contemplation isn’t going to make more information available, but it might lead one to synthesize things that are simply not true and mistake them as facts that then do lead to erroneous conclusions.

It’s like the “limousine liberals” – they aren’t necessarily availing themselves of any greater degree of information or knowledge, but they have a greater “luxury” to ruminate on such matters with that limited information and knowledge. They then presume to pontificate on the conclusions of others and on things for which they are not burdened with the consequences of their erroneous conclusions.

Or stated another way – if you _want_ to reach a predetermined conclusion, if you have the luxury of more navel gazing, you are more likely to find more elaborate ways to fabricate “arguments” to convince your self of those predetermined conclusions despite the fact that no such basis exists. That is, you aren’t necessarily reaching a more considered conclusion as just using that time to find ways to convince yourself of what you already wanted to conclude.

Albert Keinstein

I can easily explain this. Let’s ask two people about how much is 16×32. Do you think person who thinks for 30-60 seconds is less sophisticated compared to person who gives answer after 5 minutes? Hahaha

Both the democratic and republican parties are authoritarian and both parties are conservative by definition. They both support a system where the state plays a large role in what is acceptable or forbidden by the citizens both fiscally and socially. Sometimes its drug prohibition and other times its edicts to business. In the end, the difference between republicans and democrats rests mostly on policy and not philosophy.

The only party that favors personal liberty both fiscally and socially are the libertarians.

Argument Clinic

You are correct about Republicans but very much wrong about Libertarians. Libertarians are fiscally conservative. They believe in minimal government and taxes. Free enterprise and citizens should decide best how to allocate the rest. Libertarian as you may be able to tell is rooted in the word Liberty or Freedom and that is the core principle. Democrats favor big government and big tax spending especially on entitlement programs which make up almost 90% of every tax dollar. FDR was a democrat for example and embodied this exact. The farthest left wing democrats basically think the citizens ought to provide the government with the majority or all of their income and in return the government should provide them with everything they desire. When a government decides everything for you, that is not freedom.

If you want to know more about real Libertarians, go to youtube and watch the Milton Friedman videos that are available and you will be more educated on what Libertarianism actually is.

Kehvan

You’ve obviously fallen for the spin about what’s “conservative” and what’s not.

Argument Clinic

You are greatly mistaken. This is based on my own experience and my own academic research. I am an independent critical thinker thank you very much. You should try it some time.

Bongstar420

Conservative= values past ways of life
Liberal= willing to try new things to solve old problems

Rudi

These are the labels that have been pounded into people’s heads in order to encourage prejudice but, you recognize that those definitions have absolutely nothing to do with political systems and everything to do with labelling people.

LP9086

“Conservative= values past ways of life; unwilling to do new things to solve old problems- defines new ways as the problem
Liberal= willing to try new things to solve old problems; highly utilitarian”

That is the most ignorant & idiotic generalization I’ve ever read. This is what indoctrination by college professors accomplishes (labels and identity politics). Keep smoking your bongs. I’m sure it will cure cancer one day.

If by “try new things”, do you mean giving hormone therapy to 8-year old children who decide want to be a different sex?

Conservatives are sick of liberals childish behavior. Conservatives would rather talk about issues than argue about who is more racist, sexist, fascist. We are tired of being labeled by racist, fascist, sexist little children that we are racist, fascist, and sexist.

Personally I am sick and tired of the banter. I want to get back to the days when we can see each other as Americans. It should not matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. We should be able to see that each has something to offer, that sometimes Democrats have a good idea, and sometimes Republicans do. But instead you liberals can’t carry on a discussion like an adult and resort to name calling. This is why you will never be as smart as conservatives.

Anecdotally, I’ve never come across such a conservative. Certainly they are reserved and appear responsible, but if you bring up actual economics or even something simple like the fuel mileage of a hybrid vehicle, they oust you from the conversation with harsh tones and rude remarks. Assuming you even get that much courtesy.

beaminup

It is what conservatives have been left with. We have been demonized by liberals for so long. Unfortunately the only language they understand, sadly, is identity politics.

So i am now finally fighting fire with fire. We have just believed, incorrectly, for so long thst nobody could be stupid enough to believe lineral emotional garbage. Apparently their nonsense has worked. So I’m fighting the hypocrisy with that language. Not because i want to, but the other side has forced us into this.

Funny you talk about conservatives. Whenever i bring up actual data like the fact that GVM models have ALL overestimated temperatures, or fbi statistics showing crime rates. Liberals do a proverbial la, la, la I’m not listening.

beaminup

What is interesting is that liberals have been pushing a flawed view of economics for decades. According to them the Trump economy wasn’t supposed to happen. What is happening under trump is a solid refutation of pretty much everything liberals believe about economics. And now, they don’t know what to do but try more scare tactics.

Bongstar420

Bad attempt at description or intentional misdirection?

LP9086

>>>Libertarian: fiscally liberal & socially liberal

Don’t you mean “fiscally conservative”….?

http://kehvan.com Kehvan

Liberal economics IS free market capitalism.

LP9086

Haha right….sure it is….

Mekronid

I’d like to point out that liberalism encompasses liberty and equality, the latter of which is assuredly not engendered by free market capitalism. In this respect only moderately regulated capitalism can suffice. Otherwise, the liberty of the market will destroy the liberty of the social structure; this imbalance then irretrievably destroys the liberty of both.

Corruption is a downward spiral which can only be halted by sufficient regulation and education. Naturally, excess regulation and education has the exact same effect. This balancing act is why no form of government has ever proven to be sufficient to manage the long-term success of a nation.

http://kehvan.com Kehvan

You genuinely do live a fantasy world where government benevolent and individuals are the evil.

Mekronid

Regulation is proposed by the people and implemented by the government. That’s how it’s supposed to work… But it doesn’t because we have allowed moneyed interests to replace citizens’ voices. I see no reason why that means I’d be living in a fantasy world.

http://kehvan.com Kehvan

Regulation is demanded by left wing politicians and implemented by SEIU members.

Mekronid

Demonstrate it is… I presume the SEIU also implements regulation in all the companies who don’t allow unionization or companies with just a few members within their lowest ranks?

Another good question is: Why do I get these weird stereotypical party lines instead of people using their brain and thinking about things like economics for themselves. Or you know, taking an actual class instead of being educated by some guy on TV.

http://kehvan.com Kehvan

Companies don’t implement regulation, government does.

Mekronid

The government’s job is to design and enforce regulation. Regulation is thus implemented only by those it applies to, in most cases being corporations or other branches of government. Self-regulating entities are often sources of corruption.

Mekronid

Hot damn, facts on a public forum? What is this?

dufas_duck

fiscally liberal with other people’s money…They hold on to their own very tightly….

Argument Clinic

You obviously don’t know what liberals really are. Liberal = run up debt like crazy then make it someone else’s problem. It’s kind of like how Congress has been spending money over the past 16 years.

dufas_duck

Yep..other people’s money…

Like a 13 year old girl let loose in a mall with dad’s credit card…she spends and dad pays….

Argument Clinic

Wrong. They do it with both credit and their own money. It doesn’t matter. Then they look for a bailout like bankruptcy justified by some sob story because it’s someone else’s fault.

They never have two nickels to rub together and then look for social programs to take care of them in retirement.

There is nothing fiscally conservative about liberal spending, period. Conservative is going to be super pessimistic and selfish while Libertarian is going to just take responsibility for their own freedom and make rational choices based on that. A bleeding heart Libertarian will help others if they feel they can do so with minimal risk to themselves or their families.

dufas_duck

To pay the credit, it is passed on to the tax payers….as is the bailouts, and someone else, as you say, is blamed, IE other people’s money, fault, responsibility.. Very little of their own money, if at all…….

Argument Clinic

Ok so you now admit the fallacy of your original statement which is “They hold on to their own very tightly….” You admit they don’t have any of their own money to hold onto. That is the point. Now that we both agree on that, we both agree in general.

Also to understand the economic fallacy better of getting something for nothing from the so-called “system”, I’d highly recommend Milton Friedman’s talk which is on youtube now called “The Free Lunch Myth”

dufas_duck

Actually, I didn’t admit to anything. “Very little of their own money, if at all [will be used ]..

As for getting something for nothing, that happens all the time. It is still paid for ‘by other people’s money’… It is the recipients that get ‘something for nothing’.

Welfare recipients get a ‘free’ Iphone. The recipient does not pay for the phone, the recipient does not pay for the phone calls. The government pays for the phones and the use of the phones. The government taxes paying phone users and the general public to pay for the phones and the use of the phones.

The costs for anything that is touted as free will be passed on as added costs to paying customers or tax payers. The ‘free lunch’ is from the recipient’s point of view.

Argument Clinic

No that’s not what you said, here is what you said “…..fiscally liberal with other people’s money…They hold on to their own very tightly….”

That indicates you believe liberals have some amount of money because they have to have _something_ to “hold onto” “tightly”, get it? I’m just parsing your words.

And in this post you say that you said “Very little of their own money, if at all [will be used ]..” when what you really said is above.

So which is it? Do liberals have no money, an insignificant amount of money or lots of money that they are holding onto tightly? If either the first or second is true, it’s pointless to discuss that because is of no significance.

If you wanted to talk about liberal entitlement that’s an entirely different discussion. You need to get your thoughts more organized because it’s to communicate with someone as incoherent as you appear to be.

Tim Mueller

That’s a conservative.

Tim Mueller

No, those are conservatives.

Yougottabe Dryhumpinme

The Demonrats are the group who likes to take other people’s money. The problem with the socialistic Demonrats is that they ALWAYS run out of other people’s money.

beaminup

Yes. Just like children. And they brag about how smart they are just like my kid brags sometimes about knowing more than me.

You know what’s interesting about this comment and recent Tea Party/Conservative rhetoric, conservatives have been clearly connected with being more effectively lobbied by corporations typically via the US Chamber of Commerce, look at the campaign contributors for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in 2012. I think it’s great to get more transparency so everyone can be honest. Even Ann Coulter, as conservative as they come, has acknowledged this.

So now the idea is that if we accuse the other side of engaging this activity as well, we deflect the blame. Let’s say you’re correct though. Well with the evidence to support what I just said, guess what? No matter who you vote for, you’re voting for corporations. Whether it’s Ted Cruz’s conflict of interest because his wife works at Goldman Sachs or being pawns for so-called “elite” liberals, no matter what you do, you’re screwed. The ship’s going down either way.

I am disheartened that no one cares. They’d rather fight for two different teams that according to you are both taking the shirts right off our backs regardless of who is picked.

Rudi

I know… They’re so intolerant ! Wait….

Chris Reynolds

Here is the top ten reasons
why I could never be a liberal

10. They think giving people free stuff actually helps those
people in the long run when the facts don’t support this theory

9. They think government can run any program better than free
enterprise

8. They think Tort reform is bad, but regulation for everyone
else is good

7. They believe in spending more than you take in is normal

6. They think global warming is caused solely by man even though
ample credible studies show it is solar system wide

5. They think anybody that does not subscribe to the theory of
evolution is ignoring science [hence part of your authors belief that
Republicans ignore science]

4.They do not let facts interfere with their uninformed biased
opinions

3. Believe killing unborn children is a woman’s right but the
death penalty is barbaric

2. Believe that the word God, any reference to prayer and the
Pledge of allegiance does not belong in public schools but “My Two Dads” is
appropriate reading materials for 2nd graders

1. Believe that the constitution is a malleable document that no
longer is in step with modern times and should be updated, rewritten or ignored
if not convenient

Not to mention that most atheist and non-Christians tend to be
liberal and mock all those who actually believe in a virgin birth, God came as a man, etc…

Consistently we read about or the news talks about; the
Conservative or Christian right with many derogatory remarks and comments…I
challenge you each time you read or hear these, insert the word Jew or Black
and see if you find it offensive. Then question why is it okay for liberals to
speak about Christians this way but we are bigots or anti Semites if we inserted these replacement words

Thank you-but I prefer to remain a conservative J

Nikki

As a former Christian, I agree with you. Christians are being under attack by their religious liberty and yet these said liberals are willing to ignore the fact that at least 95% of terror worldwide are committed by Muslims. Oh, but Muslims are being oppressed! They aren’t white men so they are victims! Let’s bring them in with minimal to no identification to prove that they are actual refugees and migrate these people with backwards values to the west while we have to accommodate!

Tin Man

What about gullibility? What makes us believe sources that we know
have lied ?

Fortified I am Buzzlightyear

Chris mooney, the author, uses the words “denier”, and “Republican war on science”
1) a dead giveaway of someone with a result looking for a formula. That’s not scientific.
2) “War on…” language meant to draw emotion of anger from liberals, and used without pause in the 2012 election. This kind of talk is splitting our country in two.
3) “denier”. If believing everything they say, because “they say so” is science, yet reading both sides, and asking questions is a “denier”. Then the world is upside down, and makes anything the author states suspect.
The author is simply on a mission to dispense propaganda, ……….
I have now discovered the mission statement of “Discover”, and science ran away with the spoon.

John

Most people commenting here are all hypocrites ,where is it for you to judge this study without ever doing your own unbiased analysis.

Heywood Jablome

1. Get them an education above GED
2. A paycheck above 8.15/hr
3. A career that doesnt require a mop paper hat name tag and polyester uniform.
4. A job that has a comma in the weekly pay
5. A clue to reality

Rick

It sounds like “( more than twenty years ago when I was young and naive and didn&#39t know anything about anything )” you still don’t.

Heywood Jablome

1. Give them an education above GED
2. A paycheck over 8.15/hr
3. A skill set greater than that of a 14 yr old “D” student
4. A tour of the real world outside of mommy’s basement
5. A hitch in he miltary

TimUSMC

There is a falsity in this case that cognitive load makes people more conservative. As if conservative people are distracted liberals, if they would only clear the distractions plaguing their brains then they would be liberal people. Its ridiculously biased and considering the prior publications from Chris Mooney, its not a surprise that he would conduct such a study and draw such a conclusion.

C M

The biggest difference is Liberals want to control everything by government, the Conservatives want to control everything by Free Market.

In the former case, all individual liberties are lost and one is sunk into even further desperation due to the hopelessness of one’s future. This is why the staunchest communist societies are overwhelmingly tainted with a desperate and hopeless depression. Just like when I read your ignorant article.

Joseph Pajerek

The free market isn’t always the solution.

It is if you are loaded, but for working class people, not so much 😑

Jarrin Derricks

Honestly, there’s a reason why more and more libertarians are popping up and it’s because people are sick of the warfarism of the right and welfarism of the left!

Kehvan

So saith the priests at the Ministry of Truth as they disseminate the newspeak for today’s Two Minutes Hate.

Bob Mitchell

It’s been scientifically found that country music is more complex than pop.

Ben Keller

Ryan, I hear what you’re saying. We have more important issues to worry about than gay marriage. Guns however, is a different story. The only reason they want guns out of our hands is because they are afraid armed people will come to get them due to the compromises they make for their personal profit at the expense of the tax payers’ expectations based on their speeches from their campaigns. It is on both sides and we have been duped. We have to get rid of all of the cronies Dem and Rep alike that do not defend the constitution as it was written in 1787. It has worked thus far and has created the best country in the world to live in. Things are changing, though. Hillary sits down with some of the most wealthy Arabs and walks away $500,000.00 while the rest of us are to wonder what was promised. Oh, well if you listen to CNN, ABS, CBS, or NBC you’ would never hear about it. Obama is Muslim. Women that want to vote for Hillary should start measuring themselves for burkas. Husbands should measure your wives. They will be required to cover their faces and walk three steps behind you. Oh, and if you men
want to experience Islam at the fullest, get 4 wives. You have to treat them the same. Good luck!

Mekronid

Well, the arabs donated $100,000,000.00 to Trump’s wife so at least they spread it around.

Nikki

Classic liberals and libertarian/conservatives are the ones being the most ostracized. Yet we’re the most prejudice and barbaric for actually investing the time to see what is going on as compared to safe spaced, entitled and privileged libtards ruining it for everyone else. But they are the more evolved ones, right?

Aaron

My experience is that when a Liberal finally matures into accepting personal responsibility and rationality they become more conservative. Those who switch from conservative to Liberal do so, in every case I’ve seen, for emotional reasons.

Distraction points to the likelihood that many people pretend Liberal beliefs for social reasons, and not in the least due to negative consequences for not staying in line.

The drunkenness case points to the tyranny of Liberalism, as people drop their inhibition and become more honest, their conservative side will emerge. The more fearless can do this without intoxication.

Time pressure suggests the same thing, overriding the normal peer pressure of Liberalism to be politically correct.

Cleanliness seems pretty obvious, I’ve often compared Liberalism to a virus, an infectious germ. Clean it and viola … no more infection.

Fear makes people take their responsibilities more seriously, it’s no wonder it makes them lean right.

Mr. Mooney began with an assumption and used his evidence to prove his assumption (the biased language is obvious). If I do the same what does that make me?

Mike

There’s actually ONE thing that can turn a liberal into a conservative: facts. Liberals thrive on kneejerk reactions and believe whatever they believe in has to be true when that is just not how facts work. When proven wrong, liberals either go quiet or rave that they’ve been subjected to hate speech (aka anything they don’t agree with). They survive in a closed feedback loop where the only thing they listen to is whatever agrees with them because nothing else could possibly be true.

Vashra Araeshkigal

So…..How to *completely* debunk each of these studies as “correlative but certainly not causative:”

1. Distraction/Cognitive load: Nearly all the Intellectual Elite in this nation are Liberal-Progressive. So are the (passing) college students. These folks are cognitively loaded up the wazoo.

2. Drunkenness: Is this exclusive to alcohol, specifically? Or any form of mind altering chemical? Either way…Two words: San Francisco. Liberals are arguably the most stoned out group I know….

3. Time-Pressure: Um…this exercise would actually only prove that *everyone* is actually more conservative when they don’t have time to re-write their own “gut” responses for things like “tact.”

5. Fear: Um…from what I can tell, the *entire* nation should shortly be parading in the streets rather than rioting over Trump’s election, given all the fear that’s being expressed.

Vickie Collins

I am another variety of this…I didn’t convert to conservative but I did think well of George Bush’s statement that we would not blame all islamics for 9-11 a lot. I thought when he said that, maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Then he “blew it” with me when he led the invasion of Iraq.

Heywood Jablome

1. A GED or higher education
2. A PAYCHECK ABOVE 7 BUCKS AN HOUR
3. A HOUSING PAYMENT
4. REVIVAL FROM A COMA
5. EXCLUSION FROM WELFARE AND EVICTION FROM MOMS BASEMENT

BuddhistChristianJewishHindu

Education and the capacity to analytically process facts makes the transition from being a low IQ regressive leftist to being a well-informed and pragmatic conservative much easier.

Bongstar420

LOL…

Now how to make a con artist turn liberal?

Bongstar420

So you have comprehension difficulties or are you bipolar?

LP9086

Says “Bongstar420”

82nd Airborne

What a sad, angry, scared, old fool you are. The republicans have successfully manipulated your strings and you are nothing but a puppet now. I feel sorry for you and your stagnant life.

LP9086

Usually when the name calling and insults being, the thinking has stopped. It’s the lowest form of communication in a disagreement.

beaminup

Name calling. Definitely the first sign of intelligence, ever noticed how the ignorant oaf of a bully in elementary schools uses those same tactics? Think about that.

Tim Mueller

Your ideas about what liberals are prove you still live in a fantasy land.

LP9086

Using local taxpayer dollars to rips down and lock away confederate statues or anything that may offend people as racists, support protests that include kneeling for the national anthem (despite it being looked at as a spit in the face to the overwhelming majority of venterans), support gender neutral bathrooms, open borders with no restrictions, sanctuary cities / amnesty for all illegal immigrants, socializied/government controlled heathcare, unfeddered government spending, believing “income inequality” and “wage gaps” is something that only government should fix.

Fantasy Land…

Rick Shonsite

So basically your saying that people who work for a living, and therefore are subjected to greater cognitive loads are conservative, and liberals, who are largely freeloading scumbags are free of such distractions, and therefore can dream of a forced utopia brought about by some form of benevolent tyranny. Sounds about right.

RainingLogic

No wonder why Fox and Breitbart constantly spew “news” that heavily promotes fear, uncertainty, and stress. There are smart Conservatives, the rich and powerful ones who know Conservative policies will be better for their bottom line, but most of them are stupid, scared sheep that are deeply ashamed of their closeted gay personality.

Dee Bee

A Liberal wants entitlements from the successful, but if he ever gets rich, he quickly changes to a Conservative who does not want to give his wealth away to the Liberal losers who demand it.

Sassy3000

WOW! How can liberals be so dumb?! I mean they’re BLIND devotion to Junk Science?! Man-Made-Climate-Change is a total farce! There IS NO REAL science behind the hype! YET! These simpletons are like “Duuuuuh. You don’t believe in man-made climate change? Duuuuh, you must be very stupid. Duuuuh.” as they drool all over themselves. SMH Seriously?! Over 31,000 Scientists signed a petition condemning the idea of man-made climate change! And that B.S about the 97% is a total fraud! Those scientists WERE NOT ASKED ANYTHING about man-made climate change and the pukes who published that poll and then proceeded to hide the poll data so that no one could double-check how they arrived at their “conclusions”. smh
Plus those of us with actually working brains and a decent amount of understanding of science can see through the smoke-screen of B.S that the Far-left keeps throwing up. The fact that liberals so stupidly and blindly just buy into this Con job is beyond comprehension! It’s so obviously fake! and no matter how many things have been exposed as a total FRAUD the left still keeps mindlessly buying into it! It’s like some sort of cult!
Same with several other fake scientific data that the left uses to try and silence and bully the right into submission. They NEVER seem to realize that the ONLY SOLUTION that the Govt has for dealing with all of these “man-made” disasters is MORE GOVT AND MORE TAXES!!! Helllo?! Any working brain cells on the left!?

Nicholas Sweeten

So under “distraction” you re-frame logical reasoning as a consequence of divided focus.

Clearly this is a liberal biased article.

See, my conclusion would have been that the music focuses the mind and compels improved logic, helping to sway the liberal. And that the conservative is already logical and so wont be affected. That is equally if not more probable, but you chose to reframe it as a distraction away from the “correct” liberal thinking.

Rudi

True, but googles biases are pretty scary…

LP9086

“Emotions are way more important to our survival.”

Not my survival…

crewldude

Increasing a liberal’s IQ would be the best way to switch them to a conservative.

jake101goodale

Not surprised high cognitive load correlates with conservative thinking. After all low pressure/workload areas like academia are liberal central. Easy to complain about strange mythical injustices when you have no real concerns.
That being said both Democrats and GOP members (irrespective of their ideology) are tearing this country apart. The only hope at this point is moderates that are willing to make the compromises necessary to run this country.

Philip Michael

All these measures are about reducing brain activity and or creating a feeling of disgust. With Conservatives having a larger amygdala, the center responsible for fear, it makes sense that these tactics would work. For the majority of Liberals hold a larger anterior cingulate gyrus, the area of the brain responsible for taking in new information and the impact of decisions. Yeah to shut that down you would need to put pressure or over bearing load. This is often seen in debates where most liberals are confused by the logical fallacies or general lies of their opponents not realizing that intellectual honesty is not the goal of a conservative. A conservatives goal in a debate is always to show strength. So as a liberal works to show that a conservative is lying or misinterpreting the data the conservative can add on lie after lie or in an almost troll like fashion contradictory state that the oppose must agree with them.

E Stoneback

For a Scientist, I find your “studies” so flawed it reeks of lies. “blood alcohol content was related to increased political conservatism for liberals and conservatives alike’ Everyone I have ever drank with in my younger years when drunk would be more sympathetic and willing to give more and more eager to help others. Cleanliness/Purity. This is an odd way to put, if your clean then your conservative, but if your a dirty filthy person your liberal. That says a bit. “Fear. After 9/11, public support for President George W. Bush also immediately swelled” That maybe true for some, But, like most Americans, it pulled all of us together not because of fear like the Democrats like to portray, It was based on how most Americans seen it as an attack on our country and our bothers and sisters even when on opposite sides of the political realm. Me personally, I did not fear it, It angered me and I wanted to protect others from this kind of thing. But just reading the preface. I knew how this was going to be a very slanted article. Calling conservatives non believers of science is another stretch. I admit, I question the climate change argument. And here is why, I joined Skeptical Science, a left wing climate change site. When I read how they where upset at a policy that Trump was putting in place that would require full discloser of their finding and how they formulated the end results.They claimed it would force them to disclose methods and “trade” secrets. We are talking about the earth and a supposed apocalyptic end and they are worried about “trade” secrets to how they came to their conclusions is a major flag. Are they afraid of what might be seen as disinformation, or faults in their formulated conclusion? And the deny the established psychology organizations and threaten them with law suits if they didn’t change and comply with the opinion of the lefts lgbt claim. While science has proven the chromosomes determine ones sex.or old dictionary definition gender before it was rewritten. The transgender is in my opinion a fetish that they can not control. When science finds otherwise in unbiased and un threaten studies otherwise, I might change my view. But how is that not believing in science, just because I don’t let feelings and wants or the “we know what we are talking about, how dare you question us” does not mean I disbelieve. Also calling conservatives idiots or uneducated is another farce. I have a degree and a tested IQ of 142. Your stereo typing does not hold water..

Michael Arcemont

This is one of the most nonsensical articles I have ever read. If you want to actually bring conservatives to liberalism, maybe connecting conservatism to drunkenness is not the best way of doing it.

roshan.perera

The easiest way: remove all educational benefits and research funding and make kids retarded, then they will be life time conservatives.

Jedstu

The likes on badnicolez’s comment speak for themselves. Well-said! More and more Americans are becoming aware of the divisive conversation taking place in most news cycles, pitting Democrat against Republican, without the real substantive issues taking the spotlight. Ignorance reigns in such an environment. Both sides are calling the other “stupid” and “evil”. The truth is more simple than many realize, but requires the courage to challenge the status quo, red and blue system. I’m a libertarian-leaning conservative myself and it’s not because I’m stupid or evil, and it’s not because Dems and Reps are stupid or evil, but because I believe my ideas represent what I feel benefits all Americans and comes directly from our interpretation of the Constitution. Feel free to intelligently disagree, but write us off at your own expense. If you’re a liberal, then take the time to challenge your own party’s faults – Wake up and realize that YOU are the 1%, not just some rich guy on Wall Street, Conversely, if you’re a conservative, ask yourself why. Is it because you hate the other side? Then you’re just as bad. Be brave enough to preach your values without having to stoop to attacking the other guy. Realize that many of your treasured heroes in Washington (both Reps and Dems alike) are career politicians, have no real convictions of their own, don’t represent your beliefs or needs at all, and are thoroughly corrupt. And both sides need to listen to voices other than their own, with patience and wisdom and empathy. Put a face behind that facebook post. These are often real people with real experiences with a lot of pain to back up their opinions. Make politics about ideas other than people. Remove the stigma and the hate and then maybe we can begin to make progress together. Libertarianism is simply trying to be honest about what matters.

Snoopy

I will not stand liberalism and the misery and suffering it bring. Liberals never want to compromise with conservatives it’s always the other way around.

Erin Ramsey

I know I am extremely late to this conversation so I am not posting to those who have bashed each other relentlessly from both sides of the aisle but to the writer of this nonsensical dividing trash and future readers.

1. This finger pointing of who has the morale high ground is not only asinine and immature, but it’s debasing to all of us of as a nation. Once in 1776 American colonist joined together in secret to rise up an oppressive monarchy. What they did on that day marked them as traitors in the eyes of establishment and the long held status quo. It marked them for death but they had the courage to change their futures and those of every man, woman, and child who would one day come to be known as Americans. I often wonder how our forefathers would feel to see us tearing ourselves apart because we cannot recognize that it is our differences that makes us unique and gives us strength.

2. On that world defining moment all eyes were turned upon this burgeoning nation and lines were clearly drawn. The majority of the recognized empires of the world at the time had little faith in we “radical” Americans. Much like then as now the eyes of the world are upon us. I know many here do not think the US should act as the world police, but like it or not in many things we set the examples the status quo in our modern world. What example is this setting? Are we once again creating a legacy where people of all walks of life, with diverse political views can still reach across the aisle and say I may disagree with you, but you are still deserving of the respect that should be afforded to all human beings? Or are we setting a tenor of weakness and childish tantrums, that enforces European views that Americans are not deserving of any respect?

3.) What happened to the free thinkers of this nation who didn’t define themselves by party lines unable to delineate from it. Why must political parties define us as human beings? This author enforces the us vs them but us is us. We all (other than native americans) came here from different places, some willingly some not so much. But I challenge this for those of you who scream slavery. Slavery was an evil thing that still exists in the world today, no it wasn’t invented by white people. But if those events had not taken place you would not exist today.

4.) To say being conservative ipso facto automatically makes you this (enter expletive liberal rant) or being liberal makes you (republican rant) is such a narrow view of the world it makes me weep for what we are teaching and leaving behind for generations after us. You cannot sit there and say well because liberals/republicans think/do such and such means I MUST SCREAM, RANT, AND RIOT! No no one has held a gun to your head and forced you to do anything, you and you alone made that choice. You can choose to play the game of finger pointing, he said she said bullshit or you can choose to say enough is enough.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are ” by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Powerful words that shaped a fledgling nation that said enough was enough. We are at those cross roads again. We can choose to fall to quote Abraham Lincoln “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.” Or we can choose to say i will not play the blame game with you. America is a house divided with delusional antics of who has the higher moral ground. But that’s the beauty of freedom we each get to choose.

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

aa bb

This article is so obviously biased that all of its claims seems suspect. The point of it, basically, that if in any situation you can’t think clearly and carefully (for whatever reason, whether due to outside distractions or drunkenness, then you’re more likely to evince conservative views. Basically its conclusion is that conservative worldviews are more common among people who are sloppy, careless thinkers.

For example, that people’s views are more conservative when they’re drunk could be because of alcohol’s inhibition-lowering effects. It could be that many people claim to hold liberal views because they want to appear “woke,” but if they ever admit to themselves or to others what they really think, they’ll endorse more conservative views.

In any case, suggesting that if only conservatives would think more clearly they’d adopt liberal positions is about the most stereotypical liberal thing any liberal could ever do, and is part of the reason why many people are conservative. It’s not because we are gung-ho for tax cuts for the rich (although we do want to reduce the size of the government); it’s that we hate the condescension, the absurd political correctness, and the identity politics of liberalism.

Judan John

democrat/liberals are wrong
About

patthematty

Personally, I love reading these articles’ comment section. They are so biased and funny reading all these idoitic pointless arguments.

About me: I like to think I am in the middle of the spectrum. If I had to choose I would be more conservative than liberal, because I think greed is necessary for economics, technological growth, and etc.

Melissa Lewis Ruhe

This is absolutely RIDICULOUS!! Learn FACTS and quit spreading out right lies and fabrication!! Please for the love of everything, don’t you want to enjoy life instead of fabricating stories that have been PROVEN FALSE…MOVE ON!!! Grow up, be someone of integrity and honesty.

John Wake

the writer forgot to mention the number one way to turn a liberal into a conservative — teach him to think logically instead emotionally.

anna

Does the author realize that he is saying, in two of five, that liberals think more? In order to make someone a conservative, they have to be drunk and stressed? Hahaha

Kent Harris

I don’t understand why liberals hate success. The Trump economy includes lower taxes and lower unemployment for everyone and that includes blacks and hispanics. Wall Street is seeing record highs. ISIS is now less than a 1000 or so. Wages have increased and many companies are giving out bonuses. Regulations have been dramatically cut. The VA has seen huge improvements with our veterans. I mean the list of accomplishments in one year for Trump is without a doubt is contributed to putting this country first. MAGA!!!

http://bhousley.wordpress.com Bill Housley

My two cents worth…

PEOPLE are often motivated to action and attitudes by culture fear…which always comes across as racism. Those fearing the minority culture seem to be the ones that are more popularly labeled as racist when ANY culture fear is and should be so labeled.

PEOPLE are often motivated by personal selfishness. People who are selfish of their own stuff are popularly labeled as Conservative. People who are selfish of other peoples stuff are popularly labeled as Liberal. Neither is fair.

There are other parallels. It is the general labeling that has to stop on both sides because it is destroying our nation. Liberals and Conservatives both want to find an excuse to ignore the other and look for and find generalizations to justify that ignorance.

http://bhousley.wordpress.com Bill Housley

Furthermore, I’ve noticed that most people are bigoted in favor of their own preconceived notions…which seems to be based more on the content, rather than quantity of their knowledge. Both sides are informed differently, not more or less. It is also not strictly based on religious behavior, but religious belief (which is not the same as behavior) is quoted as a motivator. If the religious and non-religious don’t try to force their will on each other, then religion suddenly suddenly stops being legislated and legally mitigated.

jake101goodale

6) Get them to pay for an engineering degree by working at McDonalds.

You go in liberal, you leave knowing:
1) You needed to work 70 hours a week because federal financial aid drove up the price of college
2) Isha is poor because she had a kid at 16 and doesnt have a second one now at 23 because she miscarried
3) Cathy is retiring in poverty because she smoked her whole life and refused to find a new job because “it’s too much work”. Now she has an oxygen tank, can’t work, and has no savings.

Then some liberal politician wants to tax your $130,000 income at 30+% to help these people. Nahhhhh.

USMOKEDRUGS

Conservatives deny science? Hardly! Libatards are the ones that cant accept the truth that there are ONLY TWO genders! X and Y! How about that truth! lol

Thomas Moloian

it’s time to put end to democrap socialists who are now attempting to overthrow trump and silence his followers like my and my wife and i have dire warning to these pigs, come near me or my wife and i will give you big surprise